Moon Cell Irregular
by psychored1911
Summary: The Moon Cell Automaton works in mysterious ways. Most times, it pits participants of its Holy Grail War against each other in order to determine who's worthy of its power. Other times, it uploads the consciousness of its most recent Grail War victor into an alternate dimension, with an irregular Magic System to boot, in order to grant him the life he never had.
1. Chapter 1

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka koukou no Rettousei. Yeah, not Fate/Stay Night, Fate/EXTRA. The PSP spin-off with the Hack & Slash sequel Fate/Extella coming in the winter.**

 **Personally, I wanted to make this so I can answer a question that plagued me for quite some time: can Tatsuya kill Servants? Then I also thought just having them duke it out would be a bit boring, so I made a bit of a storyline that follows the Mahouka plotline for a bit before diverging into something more original. Also, I made Hakuno Kishinami the protagonist for the Fate side of this fic, since their code-casting in the Fate/EXTRA universe correlates better with the Mahouka universe's 'magic' than Fate/Stay Night's magecraft. That, and Fate/EXTRA was my portal into the Fate/Stay Night universe, so I connected to them before I did to Shirou. Not that I have anything against Shirou; he's still awesome.**

 **Still with me so far? Good. Now, on with the show!**

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

There. It is done.

He finally made his wish upon the Holy Grail. Now all he had to do is wait for sweet, sweet oblivion.

Floating around the digital sea, he began to contemplate his short, short life: from the moment he realized his 'school' wasn't really a 'school', to his final battle against Twice and Saver.

Everything he's been through, everything he's done, it was all to survive; from making heartfelt alliances with Rani and Rin, to heartlessly crushing the dreams of his opponents, it was all just to live to see the next day. He knew how… morally questionable some of his deeds were, and if he could avoid them, he'd do it in a heartbeat. But alas, the Moon Cell was a cruel mistress. It was kill or be killed, no exceptions, no loopholes. Even now, their faces still haunt him, their dying words echoing relentlessly within his head.

Despite all that has happened, at least he made sure the future Grail Wars won't end in tragedy. That little tidbit eased his guilt-ridden conscience, if only just a little bit.

Oh, and his Servant. He couldn't forget about them. His constant companion throughout his ordeal. The first person to ever accept him for who he is. The first person, perhaps the only person who means more to him than any other. Even now, as the Moon Cell is deleting every fiber of his being, he can feel their embrace comforting him in his final moments.

"Hey… I know I haven't been the best Master… but it means a lot to me for sticking it out with me till the very end… So… thank you. Thank you for everything…"

Tears rolled down his face as the Moon Cell completed its termination process, permanently erasing the two of them from existence.

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It was early morning when Hakuno Kishinami slowly awoke, yawning and stretching his limbs as the hum of a running car slowed to a halt.

"Another one of those dreams…" He rubbed his eyes as another yawn escaped him. For a second, he wondered where he was, before looking out the window, a suburban front yard greeting his gaze.

"Right, we were in the middle of moving… Must've just arrived." Twisting his back, he could see the back of a moving truck, with his father helping the moving company unload their stuff and his mother talking with another mover. His parents must've left him alone in the car, thinking he was tired. Well, at least they cracked a window open for him.

He got out of the car and went over to the moving truck, picked up one of the boxes and brought in into his new house.

As he put the box down and went over to get another one, he noticed a young couple, a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman, holding hands at the next house over, staring at him curiously.

Well, he'll introduce himself later. He simply waved at them politely before going back to bringing his stuff in.

* * *

Later, after the moving company left and everything has been settled, Hakuno plopped onto his desk and started filling out the online application process for that nearby magic high school. You see, he wasn't like normal teenagers. He was what people would call a magician, someone who can use magic, or manipulate psions in order to alter the environment. He first discovered his ability five years ago, and ended up getting hospitalized for a week because of it. He didn't exactly know how to control it at first, so his parents got him an internship at their job. He gets to practice magic, and they get a guinea pig for their experiments. It wasn't exactly a fair deal, but hey, magicians are a rare commodity, what can he do?

After finishing the tedious application process, his gaze wandered towards a worn out sketchbook. He picked it up and started flipping through its pages:

A young girl in red, singing and dancing alone in a grand theatre.

A white-haired man kneeling upon the ground, surrounded by countless swords.

A fox-eared woman standing alone in an endless field, crying in despair.

A golden king sitting upon an ancient throne, looking upon his great kingdom.

There were many sketches in this old sketchbook, some were as exquisitely detailed as the previous four pages, while others, his earlier designs, were simple, rudimentary and often random images: a pirate fleet, a yew tree, a book of nursery rhymes; the weirdest had to be an intricate mark on a left hand.

Though it wasn't as if these images had no origins. Recently, he's been having these 'dreams', perhaps figments of his imagination. They came in and out at random intervals, but have been increasing as of late. At first, they were the random objects, and he blacked out for a split second or two before coming to his senses. And then the longer ones came in. Either small scenes into a person's life, or… well scenes involving him. These ones could've only been only a couple of minutes long at best, but apparently he blacks out for hours. Why he was having them, or the hidden meaning of them all eluded him; he'd have to take it up with his doctor the next time he saw him.

Picking up a pencil, he flipped to an empty page and started drawing his newest dream onto the white paper.

After finishing up the sketch, he tossed it onto his desk, and plopped onto his bed, muttering about the stupid vivid dreams throwing off his sleep cycles as he stared at the ceiling.

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His opponent was astonished, as if defeat didn't even compute with him.

"I don't understand. I lost, yet somehow… I feel fulfilled."

The firewall cut himself between them, condemning his opponent to his inevitable death.

It was right for him to be surprised, but he eventually took a deep breath in acceptance. "Ah, I see. This is how defeat is supposed to feel like." He put his arm to his chest, feeling something he never felt before "What a complex feeling. I feel grief and fear, yet also courage. It's strange; this must be how others feel like."

"You learn more from defeat than from victory." Hakuno said.

"If only the Moon Cell allowed for the defeated to live." His opponent chuckled "Tell me, would you have believed me to be a great ruler to the human race?"

"Leo, killing off all of Asia is an act a murderer would do, not a ruler." Hakuno's Servant placed their hand upon his shoulders, silently agreeing with him.

"I see." His opponent- Leo- smiled sadly, his limbs blackening from the deletion process "I would've never been able to lead the human race, at least not into greatness." He turned towards the knight at his side, who knelt upon meeting his gaze "You knew all along I lacked what it took to become king."

The knight furiously shook his head "My lord-no, my King, I-"

"You knew I needed most was to face defeat for the first time, yet you still helped me win." Leo continued "You knew I would one day be defeated, yet you tended to my growth anyway. And for that, I thank you."

He paused again, this time due to his chest being deleted than to let his words gain depth.

"If it wasn't for you, I would have seen this defeat as a stroke of poor luck and would not have learned from it."

"My king," The knight- Gawain- said near reverently, despite the leg he knelt upon being reduced to nothing more than ruptured codes "I am nothing more than your knight. However, it brings me great joy to see your ascension to a great king. For me, that is reward enough."

The knight shortly succumbed to deletion. Yet he had no regrets. He had given his all to serve Leo; there was no reason for him to be ashamed.

Leo then turned towards Hakuno and his Servant, crying. Why wouldn't he? Only now did he understand what he lacked to become king- to become human. Yet by the rules of the Moon Cell, he can never get the chance to improve upon it.

"So, this is the end." His voice is quivering "Hakuno, can you do me one last favor?"

Hakuno nodded quietly "Sure, what is it?"

"Can you please stay with me? I don't want to die alone…" Leo put his remaining hand on the firewall, hoping his friend would do the same.

"Sure buddy. Anything for you." Hakuno said, mirroring his friend's action.

"Thank you." Leo quietly wept, his face corrupted by the SERAPH. "You really are a true friend…"

And with that, Leo had vanished, gone without a trace.

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A couple days after that tearjerking scene of a dream, it was time for Hakuno to take the First High application exam. Now, the written exam was somewhat difficult, but he figured, with all the all-nighter cramming he did for it, he got a decent enough score to pass. Now, all he's got left to do is the practical exams. Shouldn't be too hard. Once this is over, he could finally go home and get some sleep. And some good sleep for once.

Stifling a yawn, he stepped forward when the proctor called his name up and started up an activation sequence.

"You may begin."

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"Burn the witch!"

"Burn the witch!"

"Burn the witch!"

A crowd of angry villagers chanted as the prisoner was brought towards the giant wooden stake in the city's center. The prisoner, a young woman in armor, calmly walked towards the stake, accepting her fate without a word.

A young Englishwoman approached her and put a little makeshift cross in her hands. She silently regarded her with a quiet gratitude, and only moved again when the soldier yanked at her chains.

Reaching the stake, her hands were bound to it, perhaps a bit too tightly for comfort. The soldier who fastened her restraints glowered at her with a smirk "I'm gonna enjoy burning you, witch." He said, backing away as the bishop started chanting her judgment, reciting blasphemy after supposed blasphemy, heresy after false heresy, before declaring her final judgement and tossing a torch at her feet.

Her form of execution was a cruel one, not for the excruciating pain, nor for the destruction of the flesh. It was cruel since this form of execution gives time for the victim to lose all sense of dignity and cast doubt upon one's lifelong beliefs.

Admittedly, she did wonder what would have happened had she ignored the voices in her head. She could have had a normal life, married a nice man and had loving children. However, the voices of the Angels were loud, and the path they led her down was more glorious than she could have ever imagined.

Was it foolish? Perhaps. But did she regret it? With all the lives she saved, and all the comrades she's made along the way?

Not. One. Bit.

She just smiled, closed her eyes and waited for the angels that guided her fate to numb her pain and bring her soul to heaven.

"Oh Lord, I surrender myself to you."

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"She's not burning…"

The soldier's earlier bravado rapidly turned to terror when the witch didn't burn.

The witch didn't writhe in pain, nor did she damn the God she supposedly answered to. She just bored her eyes at him and the bishop at his side…

 _And smiled._

"Kill her…" The bishop stuttered, before demanding it again once again when the soldier hesitated "What are you waiting for?! Kill the witch!"

The soldier drew his sword and charged the blazing stake, determined to run the witch down with his blade.

Only for the witch to grab the blade inches before it pierced her heart.

"You know, when you shackle a prisoner, you should really make sure they fit." She said, mockingly twirling the shackles in her free hand before, in one fluid motion, attaching one end to the soldier's sword hand, twirling around the stake, and attaching the other end to his other hand, damning him to his victim's original fate.

"N-No…" the soldier uttered in horror as the witch oh-so cheekily plucked his sword out of his grasp and left him to burn "No! You can't do this me!"

"You were damned the second you tried condemning me to death. All I did was make thine fate all the more ironic." The witch cackled as she reveled in his screams of agony, before approaching her little 'audience' with a slow saunter.

The mob fled, crying in panic and praying to God to save them from the witch. The soldiers in the audience, once shaken from their stunned stupor, drew their weapons and surrounded the witch, determined to protect the townsfolk from the wrath of that dastardly witch. Fear was overtaking them, but they were honor-bound to stand their ground. How noble of them.

Yet so, so futile.

With nary a sweat broken, the witch pranced around each and every soldier in some sort of demented dance, slashing and stabbing, stabbing and slashing, until one by one the soldiers were all sprawled across the ground, dead, the earth below them becoming a viscous, crimson red.

The witch's hatred was yet to be sated, however, and her cruel gaze wandered over to the bishop, who, instead of running away, thought it to be wise to hide under his little podium and hope she didn't find him.

She grabbed the podium with one hand and threw it aside, relishing in the bishop's cowering face.

"O-Oh dear God!" The bishop shrieked as he desperately crawled away from the witch.

"He won't save you from me, heretic." the witch slashed at his heel, preventing the bishop from fleeing. Watching him writhe in pain, the witch gave him a spiteful smirk.

"You know bishop, you were right about one thing."

"W-What... is it?" The bishop stuttered, soiling his trousers, tears running down his eyes.

"If God exists, I shall certainly receive divine punishment." The witch growled with a shrug, as if it were no big deal "But not before I inflict it upon all you heretics first!"

She raised her sword over her head with a menacing sneer, determined to unleash her rage upon the sorry excuse of a bishop.

"Starting. With. _You._ "

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The first thing Hakuno realized when he came to was that he wasn't at the practical testing room, but at the school's nurse's office; he knew that because the first thing he saw upon waking up was a woman in a lab coat, the school nurse, talking to… The couple that lived next door? What were they doing here?

The young man stopped talking and pointed to him, and the nurse turned around.

"Oh, hello there. You had quite a nasty fall earlier, Mr. Kishinami." The school nurse said "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Satomi, the school nurse."

Hakuno rubbed his eyes "What happened to me?"

"You fainted while taking the practical exam, and you were out of it for about two hours. From what it looks like, you passed out due to exhaustion." Dr. Satomi frowned "You shouldn't do that, Mr. Kishinami; another event like that could make you lose your ability to use magic."

"I'll keep that in mind-"

"And furthermore, tattoos are against the dress code policy." Dr. Satomi chastised "Unless you're an Ancient Magic practitioner and it's part of your craft, then I suggest you make an effort to try and hide the one on your hand."

Hakuno rolled his eyes "Will d- wait, tattoo?" He quickly glanced at his hand; an intricate mark had suddenly adorned itself on the back of his left hand. Noticing Dr. Satomi's glare, he opted to just roll with it "I-I mean, sure. I can do that."

"Good," Dr. Satomi's frown eased into a smile "Now that we're done here, your friends offered to bring him back home." she gestured to his neighbors at the door, who either waved or nodded in return.

"I will. Thank you, doctor."

* * *

"..."

"..."

"..."

Hakuno said nothing to the couple, and they didn't say anything to him either. The only time they actually said anything to him was how they were gonna split the fare for the train (which, in his opinion, was more of a mini-streetcar than an actual train). Well, it didn't really matter to him; after all, they were nice enough to wait for him to wake up and all. Besides, they seemed to be wrapped up in their own conversation. It'd be rude to interrupt. Instead, he just glanced at the tattoo that suddenly appeared on his hand-

"That wasn't there before." The boy suddenly turned to him and pointed at the tattoo.

"Huh?"

"I was watching you perform the practicals. That wasn't on your hand until the moment you put your hand on the console."

"Onii-sama, what are you talking about?" The girl asked, confused.

"Miyuki, look at this." The boy raised the hand containing Hakuno's tattoo "When he took the practical, I believe he was-" It took him a few seconds to realize that Hakuno was staring at him like a crazy person "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Tatsuya Shiba. This is my sister, Miyuki."

Miyuki gave a short nod "It's nice to meet you, uh..."

"Hakuno Kishinami. Nice to meet you guys too." Hakuno said "So, what were you saying about my… tattoo?"

"Oh, yes." Tatsuya pointed at the tattoo once again "I believe, that during the practical, you might've been targeted by a certain spell; specifically, a spell that engraved that mark on your hand. Your dip into unconsciousness was either a side-effect of the spell, or an initial spell designed to numb the pain of a subsequent engraving spell." He cupped his chin with his left hand "Then again, I don't see why someone would go through all that trouble just to do something like that. It's an interesting design, sure, but it sure doesn't look like an activation sequence, at least not one used in modern magic. Perhaps they wanted to send a message." He paused and looked at his new friend "Kishinami, does this symbol have any significance to you?"

He stared at the mark for a good second before shaking his head "Sorry guys, I'm drawing a blank right now."

The 'train' skidded to a halt as the trio disembarked and made it to the street.

"Thanks again for waiting for me earlier." Hakuno gave them a thankful bow "I guess I'll be seeing you guys on campus." he said as he walked away from the two… away from his house.

Miyuki gave her brother a troubled look "Onii-sama, should we tell him he's going the wrong way?"

Tatsuya shook his head "Give him a minute." he said as their new friend paused in confusion and looked around before spinning on his heels and going the right direction, with the two Shiba siblings following in tow.

* * *

Later that night, Hakuno opened his sketchbook and stopped at one page in particular.

"Found you."

The image on that page mirrored the one on his hand.

Of course he recognized the mark. After all, it was the first thing he saw upon having these… stupid dreams. But he didn't tell them. How could he? As nice as Tatsuya and Miyuki were, he only just met them; it's not like he was gonna divulge personal information to them after meeting them for the first time. No, if he was going to find out what this mark was, he's gonna have to do it alone.

Now, if only he knew _what the damn thing was_. At most, this, this _thing_ told him that his 'dreams' were the effects of some sort of spell rather than of his own volition. And even then, the contents of his dreams were just so... bizarre. As far as he knew, they were just glimpses of random events. What did they matter to him?!

Better yet, _why him?!_ He's a nobody! The most he's accomplished was being the first magician in his family, and that's it! He barely passed the First High Entrance Exam (if his dip into unconsciousness during the practical didn't kill his chances). Why would he be targeted? And by who? Who in their right mind would target him and why?

"Hakuno, sweetie? We're home! We brought dinner!" He heard his mom call out to him as the front door opened below him.

Hakuno closed his sketchbook and threw it onto his desk. He guessed his little problem had to be solved another time.

"Coming mom!"

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"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

With an ear-shattering roar, the maddened master of Bajiquan disappeared into nothing more than ones and zeroes.

As he disappeared, Berserker's master, Julius, already partially eroded by his earlier defeat, cringed as the pain of deletion once again caught up with him. His command spells, the mark that bound him to both his servant and to the Moon Cell, vanished from his hand. Gone was the bloodlust from earlier. Gone was the cold, emotionless person that was once Julius Berkisk Harway. In his place was nothing more than a sad shell of a man, a sad shell of a man who will eventually fade away before his eyes.

Hakuno no longer feared him, despite all he has done. He no longer hated him, despite having every reason to do so. He no longer wanted to kill him, despite all the attempts on his life.

After all, anyone could have been dealt a damning hand like the man before him.

"So this is the end…" Julius breathed deeply, before acknowledging the sad look in his opponent's eyes "Though it's beyond me, you somehow have some pity for me…"

He looks up, towards the digital sea surrounding them.

"Remember when you asked me, right before our Elimination Battle… 'Why do you kill?'" He asked weakly.

Hakuno nodded "Of course I do."

Julius looked at him with a sad smile "...Well, you were right. The Holy Grail, the Harways… none of that really mattered to me…" He paused, as if reminiscing of a long past time "When I was young, only one person ever loved me, who told me my life had worth… And then she was gone, died without warning…"

It was clear Julius wasn't even paying him any attention anymore, and was instead caught up in memories.

"Her family killed her, in order to ensure Leo inherits the family fortune. She then said… to her killer… she asked them to protect my brother." he shook his head in disbelief "It was akin to a bad movie scene, poorly executed, and in poor taste."

Julius paused again "But then my purpose was clear. I would fulfill her final wish, and join her in death. After that, people began to hate me, like I was some disgusting burden to them. Yet, I kept going. In fulfilling her last wishes, for the first time in my life, I had something to drive me." He finally turned towards his opponent, who had been standing before him all this time "But you, despite tearing down my one purpose in life, you didn't end my life itself… Why?"

Hakuno hesitated a bit before giving him an answer "Well… because it seemed you wanted to be saved…"

He didn't lie. Even someone like him could see Julius was hiding all the tears behind that cold exterior.

Julius seemed surprised with Hakuno's answer "I wanted… to be saved? Perhaps you're right… I've lived too long in the dark, trying to chase that one light on the other side… Even if it meant all the pain in the world."

Hakuno found himself crying. What could he say to someone who suffered that much?

"Kishinami… are you... crying for me?"

Julius looked almost touched.

"No… please don't cry. You're the only one who tried to save me, after all."

Hakuno's servant slowly stepped aside as Julius summoned what was left of his strength and trudged towards the crying master, only for his arm to dissolve before he could wipe away the tears from Hakuno's eyes.

"Oh, I see…" Julius closed his eyes in acceptance "I guess this is goodbye."

Hakuno's heart stopped as Julius disappeared before him, leaving only a faint smile on his face.

"..."

"..."

Hakuno felt his knees give way in despair as his Servant immediately went to his side in concern.

"No, don't worry. I'm okay…" He wiped the tears off his face as his Servant pulled him back to his feet "Come on, let's go, I can't take anymore today."

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 **A/N: And done! Now, while you haven't seen much of the Mahouka cast so far, don't worry. We'll be seeing more of them very soon. Also, many of you might've noticed how I kept Hakuno's Servant ambiguous; I did that on purpose. If every route in Fate/Stay Night is 'canon', why not Fate/EXTRA? In fact, Hakuno could've theoretically had any Servant besides Saber, Archer, and Caster; I already threw out two possible options for his other prospective Servants, so who knows?**

 **Now that all's said and done, please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka koukou no Rettousei.**

 **Chapter 2**

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A week has passed since that that day.

"..."

Hakuno stared at the First High uniform hanging from his door. He didn't exactly know how he got in, considering his accident, but according to his acceptance letter, despite his accident, his practical score was still on par with the second course students (albeit from the lower end of the proverbial spectrum). However, it was his written test scores that got him just barely into the passing percentile of students; he somehow managed to be the 200th of the 200 new students accepted by First High School.

In other words, he was the luckiest son of a bitch in the whole world.

He checked the clock on his nightstand; it's just about time to go. He put on the uniform and left his room. Going down the staircase, he found his parents passed out on the living room couch. It was an occasional scene in their, considering their juggling their erratic (and occasionally ridiculous) work hours with raising him and all. They still loved him of course, so they always tried to be there for him. Sighing with a humored shake of his head, he got a blanket out from the closet and draped it over his parents' snoring bodies before leaving the house.

As he left, he thought about going with the two Shiba siblings next door, but he remembered they had to leave early, something about Miyuki giving the speech or something like that.

Over the past week, he got to know the Shiba siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki, a bit better. Miyuki was what Hakuno would call a refined and elegant young lady… had it not been for the fact she was a total brocon. Seriously, every other sentence she said was either her fawning or singing praises over her beloved 'Onii-sama'. As for Tatsuya, the aforementioned 'Onii-sama', he was significantly more taciturn than her little sister. The day after he first met them, Tatsuya pulled him over to the side and asked him some... intrusive questions on his thoughts on Miyuki; he assumed it was that 'elder sibling overprotectiveness' he heard so much about. So, after he waved off any interest in Miyuki except as a friend, Tatsuya calmed down and started getting a bit friendlier as a result.

On a related note, the siblings happened to be _really_ smart. Miyuki happened to score on the highest percentile in both the written and practical exam whereas Tatsuya managed to get the highest score overall on the written portion. Due to this, Miyuki happened to be the freshman representative for their grade. He made a mental note to study with them for the tests.

But of course, he could meet up with them later. Right now, he had to get to campus. Wouldn't want to be late on the first day.

* * *

After thirty minutes and one 'train' ride later, he finally made it to campus, where he found… Tatsuya and Miyuki… having what appears to be a 'lovers' spat' by the front entrance.

"Guys?" He tried to get their attention, but it was clear they didn't pay him any mind. Sighing to himself, he gave them a quick wave (which they also didn't notice) and went into the auditorium. Apparently the freshman had to attend this assembly before they started issuing ID tags. And then… well, actually that was it for the day. Classes officially started tomorrow; he could just leave after he got his ID.

As he went to the door, he stopped in his tracks as his gaze wandered towards the library building, or more importantly, its roof, where a figure appeared to standing atop it, facing his direction. He couldn't exactly make out any of the figure's features, the sun's glare was in the way, but he could feel their gaze undoubtedly staring into his soul-

"Move it, Weed! You're blocking the door!" A Course 1 student barked at him from behind.

"Oh, sorry!" Hakuno immediately reeled away from the door as the Course 1 student brushed past him with a haughty expression, muttering something about useless Weeds. After the Course 1 student left, Hakuno looked back at the library roof; the figure was gone.

He rubbed his temples as he muttered to himself "Yeah… I really need more sleep…"

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The woman hunting her down vanished into the darkness, leaving the girl, Fujino Asagami, alone in the devastated parking garage, the raging storm outside concealing the former's presence in the bright lightning and the thunderous crackles.

Asagami trembled "What is... _wrong_ with her?" she choked out, clutching her head in terror "How can she move? _I even destroyed her arm…_ "

Asagami slowly got to her feet, clutching her sides and limped away. She had to get away from that woman- no, that _monster_ \- as fast as she could. She saw that look in the monster's eyes.

She was _having fun_.

Asagami was overwhelmed with this horrible tension of death, while the monster was reveling in every second of it. The pain from her ruined arm probably brought her more joy than any form of agony. That monster enjoyed murder… she enjoyed seeing people die…

She enjoyed seeing people die…

She enjoyed seeing people die...

people die...

Did... did _she_ enjoy seeing people die?

 _They_ … enjoyed seeing people die…?

The sound of footsteps halted her train of thought as the woman emerged from the lot's upper ramp. Her white kimono was laid bare, the red jacket she was wearing earlier discarded or missing. Her left arm swung uselessly at her side, soaked in blood whilst a large knife was tightly gripped in her right. But her most striking feature was her glowing eyes, eyes that pierced directly into her soul.

"As I thought, you are insane…" Asagami stated, her glare doing little to ease the panic in her heart. She had to end it now. If she didn't end it now, if she did not kill that monster now, that monster would hunt her down

"Bend."

Her sight became erratic as a burst of psychic energy barreled towards the woman, ripping her limb from limb.

At least, that's what she thought would happen.

Instead, the woman raised the knife and slashed at the distortion, _killing it with a single blow_.

"You know, things without form are hard to see," the woman with an emotionless smile, killing each and every last, twisting burst of psychic power Asagami thrown at her "But, after you used it a couple of times, I can see it now. Beautiful if you ask me; a nice spiral of red and green."

Asagami backed away in horror, throwing every last distortion she could at her "W-Who are you? _What are you?_ "

The woman flashed a bloodthirsty smirk, her glowing eyes boring into Asagami's as she sauntered forward.

"Everything that exists is flawed."

Bend.

Bend.

Slash.

Slash.

"The air, intent, time. I needn't even mention humanity."

 _Bend._

 _Bend._

 _Bend._

 _Slash._

 _Slash._

 _Slash._

"My eyes are special, like yours. They can see the death of things."

 _ **Bend.**_

 _ **Bend.**_

 _ **Bend.**_

 _ **Bend.**_

 _ **Slash.**_

 _ **Slash.**_

 _ **Slash.**_

 _ **Slash.**_

"I can kill anything that exists. _Even if that thing is God._ "

The woman, placing her knife between her teeth, closed the distance, grabbing Asagami by the collar and throwing her onto the ground, straddling her so she couldn't escape.

Asagami glared at her, despite death staring back at her "You're going to kill me, right?"

The woman did not answer as she plucked the knife from her teeth.

"Why…? I only killed because my wound hurt-"

"Quit lying." The woman said with a laugh "I saw that smile on your face. You were enjoying yourself as much as I was."

At first, Asagami did not comprehend what the woman was saying, before slowly putting her hand against her face.

She was smiling.

No, she wasn't just smiling. She was _grinning_.

Did she smile throughout their entire battle?

Did she smile throughout her first murder?

Did she smile throughout every other murder?

No, she couldn't have. She wouldn't have. She couldn't have taken pleasure in murder. There's no way!

The woman raised the knife above her head, holding it in a brutal icepick grip.

There's no way!

There's no way!

There's no way!

 _There's no way!_

 _There's no way!_

 _There's no way!_

 ** _There's no way!_**

 ** _There's no way!_**

 ** _There's no way!_**

There's no way she was like this madwoman!

Unable to take the revelation of her own bloodthirst, Asagami screamed at the top of her lungs, her hold over her psychic powers long forgotten.

" **BEND!** "

A horrific roar entered their ears as the distortion consumed the entire parking lot- no, the entire suspension bridge above them. The metal foundation creaked. The concrete ruptured. The ceiling collapsed. Their entire world shook with the power of a tumultuous earthquake as the suspension bridge broke down, claiming them and everything below with its massive debris.

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"Did you really not notice me walk up to you guys earlier today?" Hakuno asked them as they walked back to their house.

Miyuki shook her head "Sorry, we were kind of discussing something important."

"You do seem to lack presence, Kishinami…" Tatsuya deadpanned.

"Onii-sama, that's a bit rude." Miyuki teasingly chastised.

After the ceremony (which, due to those supposedly spell-induced dreams, he completely slept through) the next couple of hours were rather uneventful. At best, the most interesting thing happening was Miyuki having a little brocon episode with Tatsuya in front of the hallway as everyone began to orient themselves to the building.

Anyways, after waving them goodbye, Hakuno went back to his house, and up the stairs to his room-

 _*thud*_

Only to pause when he heard footsteps in the spare guest room right next to his.

"What the-" that can't be right. His parents should've left for work already. Even if they were taking the day off, which was unlikely, they didn't place anything they would've needed in that spare guest room.

"Hello? Is someone in there-"

Before he could knock, the door immediately swung open as his eyes met those of one of the most beautiful girls he ever laid eyes on. It wasn't just her crystalline amethyst eyes, or her golden blonde hair, or her fair, white skin. There was just _something_ about her that left him completely stupefied in her presence.

"Are you… Hakuno Kishinami?" She asked, her brilliant smile embellishing that pure hopeful tone in her voice.

"I- that's me…" Hakuno stuttered, his face flushed red "I-I'm sorry, who are you and how did you get in my house?"

For only an instant, he could sense a hint of disappointment, or even heartbreak coming from her, before returning to that gentle smile of hers "My name is Laeticia, and I am a foreign exchange student from France. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Oh. She's a foreign exchange student. That explains a-

Hakuno blinked "W-What?!"

* * *

Immediately after Laeticia dropped that little bombshell, Hakuno called his parents in order to make sure this wasn't some _really_ elaborate joke.

His mom sighed "Well sweetie, it turns out your father-"

"I told you I didn't do anything!" He heard his dad interrupt in the distance.

"Accidentally signed some form volunteering us to be a host family for foreign exchange students."

"And I said-"

"Honey, she's shown us the digital documents; they have your signature. In the unlikely event she hacked the agency and forged your signature, you probably just mistook them for something more important."

"But-"

"But nothing!" His mom's voice was muffled, probably because she turned the phone away from her head "Anyways, sweetie, do you mind keeping an eye on her? This is her first time in the country, and she doesn't have any friends here."

Hakuno nodded "Sure mom. I can do that. Bye."

After hanging up, Hakuno turned towards Laeticia, who was at the table, looking something up on her laptop. Considering how early it is in the school year, she's most likely setting up her schedule for the year.

"So… Laeticia, was it?" Hakuno sat down next to her, trying very hard not to get distracted by her beauty "How are you liking Japan so far?"

Laeticia hesitated a bit, closing her laptop before turning to him "Honestly? I'm a bit overwhelmed. I've lived in the countryside for most of my life. I never thought I'd ever come to this country."

Hakuno shrugged "Could've fooled me. Your Japanese is really good."

Laeticia shook her head "Languages aren't much of an issue for me. I have far more trouble with math."

"Really?" Hakuno leaned in a bit "Y'know, my grades in math aren't half bad. Tell you what, if you teach me French, I can help you out with your math skills."

Laeticia suddenly turned to him, surprised "Are you serious? I'll hold you up to that."

"Sure. I always wanted to learn a new language anyway."

"It's a promise then." Laeticia placed her hands upon Hakuno's shoulders, smiling "Hakuno, this sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

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It had been one year since the knight had first arrived in the city.

It had been one year since the knight had first laid eyes upon the Holy Vessel.

It had been one year since the knight had first knelt before it and prayed to the Almighty Lord.

And now, another man, a complete stranger to him and his friends, had been praying before the vessel as well.

The man stood up and turned to the knight, a great fellowship of angels appearing at his side.

"Come, O servant of the Lord, and you shall see what you have finally desired to see."

And with those words, the knight trembled as countless, glorious, spiritual visions entered his mind.

The creation of the world.

The expulsion of Adam and Eve.

The proof of Abraham's faith.

The exodus of the chosen people.

The birth of the Messiah.

The sacrifice He made for their sins.

The ascension of His holiness to heaven.

And last but not least, His second coming to their world.

The man, the good man smiled "Now do you know who I am?"

The knight shook his head. Whilst he saw this man in one of the visions, he did not know his name.

"I am Joseph of Arimathea." The man said "And the Lord has asked of me to escort thou to Heaven."

With those words, the knight remembered his wish upon the Holy Vessel:

He wanted to die at the time of his choosing.

After all, he didn't want to die with a life unfulfilled.

But after catching a glimpse of the glorious rapture, the great knight, the pure knight, knew he was finally content. And from the look of the saint before him, he knew as well.

"Come," Joseph of Arimathea outstretched his hand "It is time."

The knight walked towards the Saint and took his hand within both of his own, but not before he turned his head towards his two companions.

"Perceval, Bors," The knight regarded his friends with a smile "Thou art the best of friends a knight such as myself could have, and for that I thank you. Please give our king my sincerest apologies, for I can return to his side no longer."

Tears rolled down his face as he closed his eyes, the angels lifting him and Joseph of Arimathea towards the heavens.

"Farewell, my friends, and may God bless you always."

That was the last Bors and Perceval had seen the pure knight again.

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The next day, after morning classes ended, Hakuno took a seat in one of the cafeteria's empty tables. Pencil in hand, he sketched his latest two dreams onto the plank page. He didn't exactly have much time to do so the previous night. Mostly because he one of said dreams as soon as he entered his room, but also partially he and Laeticia were chatting it up for most of the night. He kinda found it weird a girl as beautiful as her would try to be friends with a guy like him, but… well, he just had this weird connection with her. He didn't know why he felt like this.

He also didn't know why he unconsciously stopped drawing and turned his focus towards the tattoo on his left hand-

"Nice ink, man!"

Hakuno reflexively slapped his free hand over his tattoo as he turned to the redhead standing over his shoulder, holding a half-eaten lunch tray in her hands.

The redhead playfully rolled her eyes "Well that was rude of you."

"You did catch him by surprise, Erika." A bespectacled girl said with a sweatdrop as she took a seat at the table, propping her own lunch tray before her.

"Scuse us!" an athletic-looking boy said, taking the seat right next to him.

"Sorry for the sudden intrusion, Kishinami." Tatsuya said with a seat, taking a seat opposite to him "We kinda had to change tables."

The redhead raised a brow as she took a seat next to the bespectacled girl "You know this guy, Tatsuya?"

Tatsuya nodded "Course I do. Guys, this is my next door neighbor, Hakuno Kishinami. He moved in a couple weeks ago."

"Nice to meet you, Hakuno." The redhead pluckily smacked him on the shoulders "Name's Erika Chiba!"

"My name is Mizuki Shibata," the bespectacled girl said with a calm nod.

"And my name's Leonhart Saijou." The athletic-looking boy gave him a thumbs up "But you can call me-"

"No one cares." Erika snarked, blowing a raspberry at the athletic boy's expense.

"Hey!"

"So, why exactly did you need to change tables?" Hakuno asked, preempting Erika and Leonhart's attempt to start a food fight.

"Feh, just some stuck up Course 1 students wanted us to move from our seat." Leonhart frowned, folding his arms and leaning back against his seat.

Hakuno blinked in confusion "And you didn't bother telling them off because?"

"We were about to," Erika said with a slightly annoyed tone "but Tatsuya stood up and left and we… kinda followed his example."

Tatsuya shrugged, shaking his head dilligently "They weren't worth the trouble. Us acting up would be exactly what they wanted."

"W-Well, at least we have the moral high ground." Mizuki weakly uttered, though it was clear she wasn't too satisfied either.

"It _is_ just a table." Tatsuya noted.

Hakuno rolled his eyes "Let them have that little victory. They'll get their comeuppance later anyways."

Leonhart raised a brow "What makes you so sure?"

"It happens all the time in media." Hakuno explains "While it's good to have some pride, being a narcissistic jerk about it never ends well. Usually that character ends up changed for the better or dead."

"When you put it like that, you make it sound like there's a good version of being arrogant." Mizuki stated.

Hakuno nodded "Of course there is. It's when their pride makes them endearing instead of a total asshole. Those kinds of characters are much more likeable."

Tatsuya gave him a slightly skeptical look "I highly doubt any sane person would really act like that."

"Who said people had to be sane to be hilarious?" Erika asked in a playful tone.

As the group began discussing the actual possibility of a hilariously charismatic egotist, Hakuno couldn't help but feel somewhat elated. He didn't exactly have many friends in his old school, so chatting it up with a little clique was quite the breath of fresh air for him.

"So Hakuno," Erika suddenly changed the subject while pointing at Hakuno's sketchbook "Do you take requests?"

"..." It took him a good minute for him to process what she said. It took him another minute to realize his sketchbook was wide open, the half-complete, yet still well-drawn page of the pure knight in plain view to his new friends.

"..."

"..."

"..."

It took him a third minute to realize that Tatsuya, Leonhart and Mizuki were also staring at him and his sketchbook; the idea of Erika acting as his model must've piqued their interest.

"...Well?" Erika asked expectantly.

"Uh… can you strike a pose?"

* * *

Leonhart shook his head for the umpteenth time "For the last time, there's no way I'm doing that!"

"Aw come on, you know it'll be funny!" Erika complained, also for the umpteenth time.

When Hakuno told Erika to strike a pose, he meant for her to just make a pose like the average fashion model. Instead, she wanted to do a sentai-esque pose with one foot planted upon a chair, arms flexed, fists facing the sky, and looking heroic-as-fuck.

And by 'chair', she meant Leonhart. As in Leonhart kneeling on all fours, looking totally defeated and humiliated.

The latter obviously refused, but Erika wouldn't take no for an answer.

According to Tatsuya, after the lunch period ended, Erika tried talking Leonhart into acting as the 'defeated loser' part of her modeling for the rest of the school day. Even now, as they were about to leave for home, Erika was still bugging him about it. And if Tatsuya was to be believed, they actually tried getting him and Mizuki to take sides on the matter. He also noted that if it weren't for the absence of teachers in Course 2 classes, they probably all would've been called out and given detention. They guessed that being an irregular student had its unsung advantages.

He also made a mental note never to take any more requests. At least not without commission.

As the two were arguing, with Mizuki trying in vain to stop them, Hakuno noticed Miyuki excitedly walk over to her brother.

"Oh, Onii-sama-"

"Why don't you ask Tatsuya to look the part?!"

"Have you _seen_ his face? He can't pull off that total loser look I'm looking for!"

"So you _were_ planning on making me look like an idiot!"

Miyuki abruptly stopped in her tracks as she quizzically turned towards Erika and Leonhart, whose conversation (read: fight) took a downright bizarre turn once they mentioned her brother "Uh… Onii-sama, what are they talking about?"

Tatsuya gave an exasperated sigh "Modeling. Turns out Kishinami is quite the artist."

Miyuki gave Hakuno a surprised look "Really? Would you mind drawing a portrait of me and Onii-sama later?"

Hakuno shifted his gaze towards the still-squabbling Erika and Leonhart before returning his attention to the Shiba siblings "Please don't give me as much trouble as these guys."

"That's understandable-"

"And I'm also gonna have to charge you for them."

Tatsuya frowned "Wait, you won't charge them, but you're gonna charge us?"

Before Hakuno could give him a proper answer, a group of Course 1 students approached their little group.

"Miyuki, what are you doing?" The Lead Bloom frowned "Why are you associating yourself with these Weeds?"

The younger Shiba sibling shook her head as Erika and Leonhart slowly stopped fighting behind them "I'm sorry, but I already told you. I was going back with my brother."

"C'mon, Shiba!" Another Bloom called "You belong with us! Don't let those Weeds drag you down!"

Tatsuya shook his head "Miyuki, I'm just gonna head back-"

"Back off!" Mizuki suddenly shouted, catching them all off guard "You can't just split up a brother and sister like that!"

"Don't you dare talk back to us!" The Lead Bloom barked "This concerns 1-A, not some Weeds like you!"

Hakuno turned to his friends, who looked like they were ready to throwdown with these jerks. All except Tatsuya, whose eyes were darting around the area, probably thinking of a way to defuse the situation. His eyes then turned towards the Lead Bloom, who had been glaring at him and his friends.

But that look on his face, that irrational hatred in his eyes, and any anger he felt towards them, suddenly turned to pity, as if he was looking at a spoiled child rather than a magic prodigy.

Hakuno let out a world-weary sigh, shaking his head before wordlessly slinging one arm over Miyuki, startling her, and bringing her over to his group.

"Hey, Weed!" The Lead Bloom snarled "What the hell are you doing?!"

Hakuno turned his gaze to him, and slowly said the words the latter did not want to hear.

"I... pity you."

He could sense the Lead Bloom's mind quickly grind to a halt, like he couldn't even comprehend what he just said, before his face contorted with rage.

"You… pity me?!" He roared, drawing his CAD and starting up an activation sequence "How dare you pity us when we're far more powerful than you! I'll show you what makes me a Bloom and what makes you nothing more than a stupid, useless Weed!"

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The wavy-haired boy, Shinji, fell back onto his butt in shock, the arrogant look on his face long gone.

"W-What the hell?!" He stammered "H-How?! W-Why?! I'm the best at everything! I can't just lose in the first round!"

Hakuno's Servant shook their head in annoyance; it was clear they found Shinji's attitude unsightly.

Shinji's gaze turned towards the pirate lying lifeless by his feet as his face contorted to that of sheer rage "You! You did this! It's your fault we lost! It's your fault I have such a useless Servant for this boring game! That's it! This game's boring! It's boring! Boring! BORING!"

"Shinji, that's enough." Hakuno sighed with a facepalm, ignoring his Servant's urgings to just leave him be "Calm down. You're acting like a spoiled child-"

"NO, SHUT UP!" Shinji screamed, desperately outstretching his arm towards his 'friend' "Don't you dare pity me because you won! You just got luck-"

Before he could finish, a firewall suddenly emerged between the two, severing and deleting Shinji's arm clean off.

"Shinji?!" Hakuno flinched "Shinji! What's happening to you?!"

"I-I don't know!" Shinji panicked, his limbs blackening and dissolving at the seams "I-It hurts! My arm! What's going on?! I never logged out like this!"

"You don't get it, do you?" The pirate suddenly sat up, her limbs just as corroded as her master's "When you are killed in the Holy Grail War, you die. You should've known this going in, Shinji."

"Die?!" Shinji shrieked, his legs already partially deleted "You mean like their avatar gets deleted and the player gets booted, r-right?!"

The pirate shook her head; an incredible feat, considering it was already half deleted by this point "No. You lose, you die. It's called a 'war' for a fact, most of the participants are going to die anyway; only the victor gets to go back home alive."

"W-What?! You mean this isn't just some game tournament?!" Shinji fell to his knees, partly out of despair, but mainly due to their deletion "C-Can't you do something?! A Servant's supposed to save his Master!"

The pirate somehow made a hearty laugh despite her body's slow, painful erasure by the system "If it were only that easy to break the rules, then there'd be no point in making them." She paused, hoping the words would gain weight with her Master "Ah well, at least this way, you have time to laugh at your regrets rather than mull over them."

As she turned with a forced smile towards Hakuno and his Servant, the pirate dissolved into nothing more than corrupted codes, the deletion process claiming her completely.

And with her gone… Shinji knew… they all knew… his fate was sealed.

"H-Hakuno! Hakuno!" Shinji whipped his gaze towards Hakuno, snapping the latter out of his horrified stupor "L-Listen! I know you got me out into this situation, but I'll forgive you for everything if you save me! W-We're still friends, right?!"

Shinji crawled towards his side of the firewall, bawling and pressing against it with whatever stumps of limbs he had left.

"Shinji!" Hakuno cried as he pounded his fists against the firewall "Damn it, SERAPH, don't take my only friend from me! Stop this!"

Tears rolled down his face as his Servant restrained him, screaming in vain the futility of it all into his ears.

"P-Please! Save me!" Shinji blubbered "A-Am I really gonna die?! I-I'm only eight years old!"

With that one last cry, He was gone. The person known as Shinji Matou has been deleted from existence.

"..."

"..."

Hakuno's Servant gently let him down as he fell to his knees, Shinji's death taking away whatever strength he had left.

He stared at his hands as the gravity of it all weighed upon him.

He just killed his only friend…

He killed him…

He killed him…

He killed him…

He killed him…

 **He killed him...**

"Damn it…" He cursed as he slammed the ground in despair "DAMN IT!"

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 **A/N: And done. Wow, This has been the first in a long time that I've finished a chapter on a regular basis. Woo! Gettin' my groove back!... Probably, I dunno. Anyways, this fic, unless the plot requires it, will be seen primarily from Hakuno's point of view. That means he won't know some details and character cues unless they have been explicitly told to him, as seen here when he refers to Leonhart by his name and not Leo, why Morisaki is known to him as The Lead Bloom, and why he didn't know of the whole table debacle until told so.**

 **As for the Servant who was summoned, she already appeared. If you have familiarized yourself with other works in the Fate Franchise, and/or confused on the presence of an 'OC' you probably know who she is.**

 **I picked this Servant in particular to be summoned first for six good reasons:**

 **1.) She's hot.**

 **2.) Saber and Caster would've completely overreacted had Hakuno treated them like a total stranger. She never would.**

 **3.) She makes an amazing foil to Tatsuya with a rudimentary analysis.**

 **4.) She would've, in theory, known the Moon Cell better than anything else, so she would actually have an inkling of an idea of what's going on, She wouldn't have the whole picture, but a small piece of it would be better than nothing.**

 **5.) She appears in Fate/Extella, canonically making her one of Hakuno's Servants.**

 **6.) She's hot. Nuff' said.**

 **Now, if you don't know who she is by this point, try looking her up on the Type Moon wiki. And just remember; she's only the** **first** **Servant to be summoned. The others shall be summoned too… just give it time.**

 **Now, after all's been said and done, please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Extra or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei**

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

"-new there was always some tension between Course 1 and 2 students, but to think it'd come to blows this quickly…"

"And it's only the second day too… We really have to address this issue as soon as possible this year…"

Hakuno once again found himself waking up in the nurse's office, this time with these two third years: one with long, luxurious hair; the other with short, boyish hair, discussing something by Dr. Satomi's desk. Sitting down on the chairs next to it were the Lead Bloom and one of his groupies, both looking equally guilty for something.

The short-haired upperclassman turned to him "Oh, good. You're awake." She and the long haired upperclassman approached him "Greetings. My name is Mari Watanabe and I am part of the Public Morals Committee."

"And I am Mayumi Saegusa, the Student Council President." The long haired upperclassman introduced herself.

Hakuno groggily rubbed his eyes as he sat up "I don't understand… am I in trouble or something?"

Mayumi shook her head "On the contrary, by all accounts, you were the victim of this little… incident…"

The two Blooms seemed to sink even further in their seats at Mayumi's choice of words.

Hakuno blinked before giving her a confused look "Incident?"

Mari shook her head "We saw the whole thing. Morisaki and Mitsui over there both pulled out their CADs and initiated activation sequences, immediately after which you collapsed, unconscious." She glared at the two Blooms, who clearly wanted nothing more than to leave this place as soon as possible, before returning to Hakuno "I'll spare you the more concerning details, but let's just say that the entire Public Morals Committee had to be called in and send most of the involved parties home, innocent or not."

Hakuno turned his gaze towards the two Blooms, Morisaki and Mitsui "What do you mean by that?"

"Simply put," Mayumi began "Two of your friends, Ms. Chiba and Mr. Saijou, retaliated physically the moment you were struck. Normally, something of that nature would merit a week's detention at the very least, but witnesses can confirm it as an act of self defense, especially since the rest of Morisaki's group pulled out their own CADs with intent to harm. They each will be given one month's detention for it after we're done writing our reports. These two however…" she regarded the two Blooms behind her "Since they both claim responsibility for actually assaulting you with their magic, well, it's not only grounds for expulsion, but grounds for arrest as well."

The female Bloom, Mitsui, suddenly stood up, tears in her eyes "I-I'm sorry Ms. President! I thought I would've calmed everyone down with my magic, but I panicked, I-I didn't think of the spell I was using a-and…"

Before she could say anything else, the Lead Bloom, Morisaki, stood up in her defense "Ms. President, Mitsui over here didn't do anything wrong. She was trying to defuse the situation…' he paused, as if trying to find the right words, before hesitantly continuing "It- It was my fault. I assaulted the Weed with a spell that, if done correctly, should induce concussion-like effects on the target. I sincerely apologize for my actions."

Mari frowned, rolling her eyes "If you were really sincere about it, you'd be apologizing to Kishinami over there instead of to the President."

Morisaki flinched, and refused to meet her gaze. It seemed that for all his want for redemption, his pride refused to bend for his own sake. However, he didn't seem bad, so to speak, just far too proud for his own sake. That attitude could land him in even worse trouble than the one he's in right now.

Hakuno then glanced at Mitsui, who was on the verge of hysterics. She didn't look like the person who'd try to hurt others, at least not it stands, she probably did the wrong thing at the wrong time. An error of judgment at best.

However, neither of them really hit him with a spell; someone, or _something,_ else had been doing that for the past several months. Though, of course, it's not like he's going to tell them about his spell-induced dreams. Nor will he directly tell him he's wrong; blindly white-knighting will just end in disaster. He _can_ , at the very least, use this to try and let him get the message without overtly offending him.

"I did nothing to my knowledge that should have provoked you that harshly. Why would you attack me?"

It was a simple question, yet it seemed to catch Morisaki off guard, as did everyone else. Seeing their stunned silence on the matter, Hakuno continued.

"Was it because I said I pitied you?"

Bullseye. Morisaki shot him a glare, only to realize Mari and Mayumi were still staring at him.

He took a deep breath as he turned to Mayumi "Ms. President, Ms. Watanabe, could you please excuse us for a moment? I would like to talk to them in private."

The two upperclassmen stared at him quizzically for a moment before nodding and respectfully exiting the nurse's office.

Immediately after they left, Mitsui quickly bowed and cried out in apology "Mr. Kishinami I am so sorry for hitting you with my mag-"

"Apology accepted." Hakuno said before she rambled on, instead turning towards Morisaki, who still refused to meet his gaze "And you?"

"..." Morisaki hesitated before angrily asking "Why would you pity me?! My magic ability far surpa-"

"I never said I pitied your magic ability." Hakuno corrected "I pitied the fact you blew your chances with Miyuki without even trying."

The Bloom blinked "What do you mean by that, W-"

"Do you honestly believe that your arrogant behavior endeared her to you?" Hakuno stated sternly "Last I checked, girls aren't into narcissistic jerks. Especially when said narcissistic jerks try separating her from her brother and attack her friends." That quickly shut him up, and the sole Course 2 student continued, knowing full well he had the Bloom's complete attention "And right now, because of actions you admitted to doing on your own free will, you face potential expulsion and jail time. You hate me unconditionally, and all I can ask is, 'why?'."

Morisaki froze, unable to answer him. "I-I don't know… I don't normally act like this… I just blew up…" he paused, wracking his brain for any form of justification.

"You attacked me solely because I was a Course 2 student and I dared defy you." Hakuno bored his eyes into the Bloom "Does being a Course 2 student automatically make me subhuman to you?"

Morisaki flinched "W-Well, when you put it like that, I sound like a total bastard."

"Not only that, you ignored my question." Hakuno argued "Let me repeat myself. Does being a Course 2 student make me subhuman to you? Does it automatically give you the right to treat me like dirt? Does my giving a simple, harmless opinion warrant an assault by magic?"

Morisaki froze, unable to answer for quite a time. The two ended up staring at each other as the tension in the air thickened, with the poor Mitsui girl cautiously reeling back. The silence continued, until eventually-

"No, I guess it doesn't…" the Bloom finally admitted "I guess... I let the pride of being a Bloom get way too far into my head… and then assaulted you when that pride of mine was threatened."

"Does that mean you're sorry?" Hakuno inquired.

"Y-Yes… I am sorry… I sincerely apologize for my actions… And I swear upon the name of the Morisaki clan, I shall never wrong you again." His words were choked, almost forced out, as if the act of admitting fault to someone of lesser status caused him physical distress. Yet, behind the coughed words, there was genuine regret, as well as genuine atonement.

"We'll hold you up to that." The three first years turned towards the door. It seems that Mari and Mayumi had walked in sometime during Morisaki's apology.

Mari looked at Hakuno with a raised brow "Kishinami, I take it you're not going to press charges then?"

Hakuno shook his head "I don't want their lives ruined over a simple mistake of youth."

Mayumi gave him an elegant smile "Well then, if that's the case, you are free to go, Mr. Kishinami." She turned towards Mitsui and Morisaki, smirking mischievously "As for you two, we still need to talk about your punishment. Mr. Kishinami isn't pressing charges, and expulsion would cause far more trouble than it's worth, especially since that would negate the point he was trying to make." She gave Hakuno a knowing wink before regarding the two Course 1 students "However, we still can't just simply excuse your actions; that would leave a _very_ bad precedent." She turned to Mari "What do you think Mari? What sounds fair to you?"

Mari shrugged, her humorous smile mirroring her friend's "Oh, I know we'll think of _something~_."

Ignoring the growing mischievous aura that threatened to overwhelm Morisaki and Mitsui, Hakuno picked up his bag, conveniently left on top of Dr. Satomi's desk, and headed out of the room-

"Oh, and Kishinami," Mari called him back in "Tattoos are against the dress code policy. I'll let it slide for today since it's the first week, but please try to cover it up next time."

Hakuno could only roll his eyes "Sure. I'll start wearing gloves or something." he said as he left the nurse's office.

* * *

Upon arriving home, Hakuno found Laeticia snoring cutely on the table, using some sort of textbook as a makeshift pillow. Either she got really bored with her homework, or she had been waiting for him to come home, probably both. Whatever the case, she left the TV on: some news report about a serial killer or something like that. He turned off the TV and grabbed the blanket his parents left on the couch, before draping it over her shoulders.

"Sweet dreams…" He said quietly as he went over to the staircase-

"...Thank you."

Only to spin on his heels as the foreign exchange student woke up with a yawn, stretching her limbs, giving him the same, beautiful smile she gave him the first moment they met.

Hakuno uneasily took a step back, his face flushed with embarrassment "How long were you awake?"

"The moment you opened the door…" She giggled a bit as Hakuno's face turned even redder "I was waiting for you to arrive. What happened?"

"I… uh, had something to do on campus?" Hakuno cringed. That had to be the worst lie he ever made.

And it seemed Laeticia picked up on it "Funny, I thought it was impossible for one to act when they are unconscious."

He flinched "How did you know that?"

"Answering machine." She pointed at the phone "The school nurse called sometime before I got home. She said you were assaulted by magic. What happened?"

Her amethyst eyes pierced through him, but her tone was gentle. They barely even knew each other, yet there was just _something_ about her that put him at ease, as if he can put his absolute trust in her without fear of betrayal. He didn't know why he felt this way, but something just told him he could confide in her without any fear.

"In all honesty," Hakuno let out a small sigh "Right after class, I was meeting up with a couple of friends when this jerk and his little clique tried to separate Miyuki from next door from her brother, and when I tried defusing the situation… he shot me with his magic."

Laeticia was expressionless, but her hands were clenched, trembling slightly "He shot you?"

"Look, he apologized for it (eventually) afterwards, and I hear the student council is going to do something about him, so it's fine." He waved her off, hoping it would assuage her budding anger.

"...Did you forgive him?"

"Course I did." Hakuno told her "He didn't kill me or do anything permanent, so it's fine. Apology helped, of course. Why would you ask? Do you think I should've left him to his fate?"

"No! No, not at all!" Laeticia hastily shook her head "I think it was nice of you to give him a second chance. You are a good person, Hakuno."

She smiled, and Hakuno's face reddened even further than he had before. He felt his heart pound and his mind race, a million questions bouncing inside his head. He had never felt like this before, so why was he feeling like this now? Why only with her?

Laeticia smiled, hugging the blanket he draped over her ever closer "So, do you mind helping me with my math homework? I'm rather… stuck…"

She sheepishly scratched the back of her head as Hakuno chuckled "Sure, what're you stuck on?"

* * *

Two days later, after classes ended, Hakuno yawned as he started walking around campus, drowning out the yells of club recruiters that filled the air. There was a weeklong club recruiting festival starting today, where upperclassmen from various clubs started recruiting the new freshmen into their ranks. Unfortunately, to most of them, ' _recruiting_ ' meant ' _grab the freshmen and run, their consent be damned_ '. Fortunately for him, most of them didn't seem too interested in him, save the handful of club recruiters that he actually attracted. But of course, there were few he actually had interest in. The journalism club caught his eye, though it was mainly due to their booth having this little memorial service to their recently deceased ace; they didn't really tell him directly, they just gave him a free download to their newspaper app along with an application and told him to think about it. There was also the occult club, which, in an attempt to impress potential members, told them this ghost story about this girl who went missing after a family suicide in her apartment complex; this did more to scare off the freshmen than attract them. There were other clubs, the art club, the athletics club, etc. but he didn't have to decide right now.

Anyways, deciding to take a break, he ducked under a tree, making sure he wasn't spotted by any more upperclassmen. Taking a seat under the shade, he pulled out his sketchbook and continued working on his latest drawing. It was weird, the dreams have been getting more vivid lately, which require him to be more detailed with his artwork. They've also, as an unfortunate side effect, gotten longer, which meant he was out of it for longer. Was it unhealthy to be unconscious for long periods of time? Maybe he should swing by the nurse's office and ask about it later-

"Oi! Hakuno!"

"Good afternoon, Kishinami."

"Huh?" Hakuno looked up, finding Tatsuya and Erika towering over him "Oh hey guys. Didn't see you there."

Tatsuya raised a brow as he sat down next to him "I take it you're catching your breath from all this madness?"

Hakuno nodded "Yeah, it's a bit much for me."

"Could be worse." Erika shuddered "Some of the recruiters were practically tearing me limb from limb earlier."

"Seriously?"

"By the time I got her out of it, one of them even managed to slightly undress her." Tatsuya told him.

Erika muttered under her breath with a slight blush "Yeah, and then this guy got a good look at my bra."

Tatsuya narrowed his eyes "It was an accident. I didn't mean to do so."

"At least they didn't go any farther." Hakuno snorted as he looked at the armband on Tatsuya's left arm "So, they made you a member of the Public Morals Committee?"

Tatsuya nodded "Yeah, I was nominated by the Student Council. We're still short-staffed though."

"Short-staffed?"

"Yeah. The faculty's nominee, Shun Morisaki, was revoked due to what happened at the gate two days ago. According to the Student Council, his behavior and actions during the incident was unacceptable for the position. He was given two months detention for it, so the staff have to scramble to find another suita-"

"Wait, he was only given two month's detention?!" Erika yelled "The hell?! He knocked Hakuno into next week with his CAD! He should've been expelled!"

"In all technicalities, he should have also been arrested." Tatsuya's eyes narrowed "Unless of course, the victim didn't press charges..."

Hakuno found himself at the receiving end of his friends' judging eyes "What?"

Erika stared at him incredulously "You let that jackass go?"

Hakuno slowly reeled away from them "He still got punished, didn't he?"

"That's not important!" Erika yelled, getting dangerously close to his face "Dude, he knocked you out for- how long were you out?"

"Uh… I think three hour-"

"Three hours!" She grabbed him by the collar and shook him vigorously, punctuating each and every word with a outraged shake "That bastard knocked you out for three hours! _He probably gave you brain damage!_ You had that jerk dead to rights! Why would you let him go?!"

To his credit, Hakuno remained 'relatively' calm, though he did take a second to halt his sudden dizziness, and simply said "What would you do if you held someone's future in your hands?"

"Huh?" Erika looked confused "Whaddaya mean by that?"

"Theoretically speaking, let's say you see someone make the biggest mistake of their life. You don't know them, they don't know you. However, because of their mistake, you now hold their chance to make things right in your hands. You can punish them for their mistakes, or you can absolve them and give them one last chance. What would you do?"

Erika paused, mouth agape, and did not immediately answer, while Tatsuya seemed… impressed, to an extent.

"Interesting," Tatsuya commented "Where others would see a chance for revenge, you saw more of a moral dilemma. What did you do?"

"Simple," Hakuno said "I just... pointed him in the right direction, and let him go."

"Point him in the right direction?" Erika echoed.

"He made Morisaki see the error of his ways, implicitly, by having the latter come to the conclusion by himself." Tatsuya concluded.

"Aaah," Erika said in realization "But wait, what if he just made up all that crap to get out of trouble?"

"Not likely." Tatsuya shook his head "He's from the Morisaki clan, one of the Hundred families; if he gave his word, he'll be honor bound to uphold it."

"That, and you guys would kick his ass if he didn't." Hakuno added.

Erika snickered before giving him a playful fistbump "Damn right we would."

 _*ring, ring*_

Erika's phone blared out loudly as she turned off the alarm "Well, it's almost about to start."

"What's about to start?"

"Oh, we were waiting for the kendo club's demonstration in the gym." Erika explained "You wanna join us? It starts in like, ten minutes."

Hakuno slowly shook his head, slowly rising to his feet "Sorry, but I'm feeling a bit tired. I'm just gonna go home."

"You sure?" Tatsuya asked.

Hakuno waved him off "Yeah. Just tell me how it goes, alright?"

As he got up to leave, Erika bolted upwards, grabbing onto his shoulder "Wait, Hakuno!"

"Yes?" he turned around to meet his energetic friend's gaze.

"Where do we stand on that whole portrait thing?" She asked with a cat-like grin.

"Did you talk Leonhart into it?" He asked.

Erika playfully grinned "I'm working on it."

"Call me when you succeed. See ya guys." He waved goodbye as he went over to the exit. Like anything exciting was gonna happen in the gym anyways.

* * *

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"Come now. Over here."

It had been some time since he first met her. One week since he saw her beautiful form.

When he first met the girl, he had been nothing more than a beast, an abomination of mud and clay, crafted by the voices of the divine and set free upon the world. The wilderness was his domain, and the wildlife were his friends.

And then he met her, Shamhat was her name, last he recalled. He remembered her embracing him, and she had not let go for six days for seven nights. In that time, he took her form, and made her beauty his; she did not seem offended, but rather flattered by his new guise. Whilst under her, both literally and metaphorically speaking, he began to learn from the harlot, if only to learn about what he was.

Not only did he learn, he also gained something he so desperately needed: a soul. He gained wisdom, insight and a purpose, a purpose given to him by the ancients themselves.

He had to meet the king. And punish him in Their name.

He asked Shamhat to bring him to the king, and she obliged. Taking him by the hand (a truly unique human appendage, especially this 'thumb' thing; it's so much easier to pick things up), she had brought him into the city. There, they had found the king, walking towards the temple in all his glory. This, according to Shamhat, was due to a wedding between two of the king's citizens. Though, the king was not there to honor the wedded couple; he only there to exercise his 'right' as king.

He knew he had to punish him for his insolence. However, upon seeing the king for himself, he could feel nothing but pity for him. The king cloaked himself with insufferable arrogance and limitless pride, yet it did nil to hide his endless loneliness within his heart.

It was then, and only then, did he choose to forsake the mission They have given him. He wanted to be his friend.

And he started by remaining standing in the king's way, gaining the king's immediate ire.

"Mongrel," The king glowered, their eyes locked together "Who gave you permission to stand in the way of your glorious king and stare upon him with your revolting gaze?"

"The same ones who gave me permission to do this." the abomination said as he gave the king a flying knee to the face.

Staggering backwards amongst the horrified gasps of the crowd, the king glared daggers at the abomination, his face contorting with rage "You cur… you dare lay your filthy hands upon your-"

A follow-up haymaker to the face brought the king's snarl to a halt, bringing the king to his knees.

The abomination towered over the king with an infuriatingly polite smile "Huh. I expected the mighty Gilgamesh to put up a much better fi-"

The king, catching the abomination by surprise, tackled him onto the ground and brought his fists together and slammed them against his head, only for the abomination to dodge and throw him off at the last moment.

And thus the first clash among many between the king and the abomination had commenced. The king, for all hisstrength, could not land a decisive blow upon his opposer. Any and all blows that connected with the treacherous mongrel merely did nothing more than push him back. The same was true for the abomination; While his initial assault upon the king worked, it was only due to surprise and sheer audacity on his part. With those gone, the king had managed to defend himself far better than he had before, and all his own attacks had been parried or brushed off with nary a sign of injury.

In other words, the abomination had the king in a _stalemate_.

And the king knew it. And it infuriated him to the core.

After countless clashes, the two rivals leapt away from each other as countless glowing ripples distorted the air around him. He knew what it was; it was the golden treasury of the king. And he knew the king would never use it unless he had his back to the wall. The humiliation he should be feeling must be immense.

"To think that I must use my beloved treasures against a clod of mud like you…" The king bellowed as countless weapons emerged from the golden portals "Mongrel, when I'm through with you, nothing shall be left of your corpse!"

"I'm pretty sure clods of mud can't become corpses." The abomination corrected.

"And now you have the gall to correct your king's word?!" The king roared "You must desire for a long and painful death!"

A beautiful spear and a menacing axe flew towards him at blinding speeds, speeds that no mortal could ever see with the naked eye. He knew he couldn't dodge the king's weapons no matter how fast he moved, so he did the only thing faster than dodging them.

Namely, he copied the weapons with his divine clay and parried them right before contact. As his treasures impaled themselves onto the ground, the flabbergasted king had little time to react before the abomination lobbed the counterfeits towards him, the clay copies lodging themselves by his feet.

It was not out of malice.

Nor was this act done in any real retaliation.

He was _bragging_.

He could copy his precious treasures at any time, and he absolutely made sure the king knew it.

"You sniveling, filthy worm…" Countless portals into the king's treasury formed, all with magnificent weapons trained upon the abomination "First you dare lay your hands upon me, then you force me to reveal my treasures to an unworthy mongrel such as yourself. And now THIS?!" he gestured to the clay counterfeits at his feet "You have the nerve to create these _'fakes'_?! These fraudulent copies of my glorious treasures?! For these crimes against me, I, Gilgamesh, the great King of Uruk, shall destroy you!"

Two clay swords formed in the abomination's hands as he held them at the ready, giving the king an excited smile.

"Come at me, O mighty king of Uruk."

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Did you hear what that Weed did yesterday?"

"You mean at the gym? Yeah, I heard he-"

"What? No way! A Weed couldn't do something like that!"

Oooooookay… maybe it wasn't the best decision to leave campus early yesterday. Apparently _something_ happened in the gym shortly after he left for home. Whatever it was, it caused quite a ruckus among his classmates. He couldn't exactly figure out _what_ happened, per se; all he could hear from the rumors was that Tatsuya was involved somehow.

So, once classes ended, he found Tatsuya patrolling the campus and asked him what happened.

Tatsuya's answer was terse "The kenjutsu club was causing a ruckus in the gym. I stopped them."

Hakuno stared at him in disbelief "That,,, just gives me more questions. What exactly happened yesterday?"

"The kenjutsu club interrupted the kendo club's demonstration yesterday. The club president then used his CAD with intent to harm. When I stopped him, the other kenjutsu club members tried to intervene with their CADs. I stopped them too."

Hakuno folded his arms "Again, more questions. You have to be more specific."

"Well, I-"

"This is the student council. A fight has broken out in gymnasium number one!" Tatsuya's radio blared out.

Tatsuya picked up the radio and answered it "This is Shiba. I'm on my way." putting it away, he turned towards Hakuno "Sorry Kishinami. I'll tell you when we head back home." He said as ran towards the gym, leaving Hakuno in the dust.

* * *

Late into the afternoon, once the festival ended for the day, Hakuno joined the Shiba siblings on their 'train' ride home. There, Tatsuya explained everything about what happened yesterday.

And by everything, he meant _everything_.

Apparently he single-handedly took down the entire kenjutsu club when the latter crashed the kendo club's demonstration. But, of course, that wasn't the part Tatsuya focused on.

Rather, the elder Shiba sibling gave him a short (thirty minute) lecture on the concept of cast-jamming. You see, he somehow figured out that using two or more CADs simultaneously, the psion noise generated makes it impossible to use magic. He then explained how he refined the process by using two reversed activation sequences in order to hasten and amplify the effect, turning it into non-systematic magic. As informative as it was, Tatsuya didn't exactly need to go out of his way to make it sound as convoluted as grammatically possible. Nor did he really need the history of cast-jamming in modern magic. Hell, he could've gotten the picture had the latter just said something along the lines of 'use multiple CADs at the same time to create a pseudo-antinite effect.' to get the general point across.

Hmm… perhaps Tatsuya is the kind of guy who really enjoys the sound of his own voice.

"...And that's the gist of it." Tatsuya finally finished as the trio got off from the train "Just as a personal favor, would you kindly keep this off the record?"

Hakuno gave him a sarcastic(?) thumbs up "Sure, it'll be like I didn't understand a word."

Miyuki beamed, seemingly oblivious to Hakuno's possible sarcasm "Onii-sama sure is smart, don't you think?"

Hakuno only rolled his eyes "With those lectures he'd make the perfect college prof-"

"Pardon me."

Before he could finish, Hakuno suddenly found himself being dragged back into the 'train', as Tatsuya and Miyuki abruptly whirled their heads back to it in sheer bewilderment.

"Hello there. You two must be the Shiba siblings." Laeticia bowed politely before waving at the sibling pair from within the 'train' "Forgive me, but I need to borrow Hakuno for a while. Please excuse us."

The 'train' door shortly closed and steamed off, leaving Laeticia and the very-shaken Hakuno alone in the 'train'-car.

"Laeticia?" Hakuno hesitantly asked, wondering what the heck she was doing here.

Laeticia turned to him, smiling as if nothing had happened "Yes, Hakuno?"

"What was that about, and why did you drag me back into the train?" He asked as he awkwardly got back in his seat, the speed of the train throwing him off balance.

"I needed to talk to you in private." Laeticia told him.

"Couldn't you have waited until I got back home?" He said, fumbling with the 'train's' stupid seatbelt.

Laeticia shook her head, paying close attention to her phone's clock "I wouldn't be able to. After all, you are going to go under in five minutes."

He blinked "Wait, what?"

"It's one thing to lie to ensure one learns from their mistakes. However, it's another thing to lie to me." Laeticia's amethyst eyes became steely under her gaze "I know of your fainting spells. I know of your dreams."

Hakuno paled, gradually and inconspicuously inching away from her "How do you know that?! I never told anyone about them!"

Laeticia smiled sadly, gently placing her hands over his "Hakuno, I know I'm frightening you right now, but it's okay. Harming you is the last thing I would ever do; you are that important to me."

He could feel his heart rate relax, and any thought of fight or flight slowly went away. Despite that, he still eyed her suspiciously, that underlying layer of caution still present.

Somehow catching onto his skeptic gaze, Laeticia slowly wrapped her left arm around him and whispered one thing.

"Do you want to know the truth?"

They were simple words, yet they immediately held his focus like they would anyone else.

Wrapping her other hand around him, she cradled him in her arms, like a mother rocking her child to slumber.

"Go to sleep one more time, and I shall tell you everything I know…" she whispered softly, humming a french lullaby into his ears "It's okay, I will not let any harm befall you any further… Just… go… to…"

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Hakuno collapsed onto the ground as the effigy struck him down, the pain setting in immediately.

" _...Hmph, it seems you also don't have what it takes…"_

A voice boomed into his head, ringing loudly in his ears.

" _The time has come. With your impending defeat, I shall consider this round of preliminaries to be over. Farewell. May you find peace in deletion."_

As his vision went hazy, he began to notice countless pale brown... forms sprawled all around him. Did they just suddenly appear? …No… they must've been here since the beginning… These forms… He knew what they were.

They were _other students_.

They all came here. They all arrived here before him. And they all died, alone, helpless to stop their fates.

The worst part about it? He was about to become one of them.

And he knew it.

At first, amidst all the pain, he considered just closing his eyes, and let fate run its course.

…

…

"No, I refuse to give up…"

He summoned whatever strength he had left to stand. As he began to push up against the ground, the pain spiked through his entire body, shuddering him to the core. He couldn't ignore it. How could he? It felt like every part of his being was ripping at the seams. But despite the agony of his impending demise, he powered on, slowly but gradually rising to his feet.

His body, broken as it was, persevered through his suffering.

His mind, numb from the anguish, refused the sick logic of giving in now.

His soul, shooting through with waves of distortion, raged against the injustice of it all.

"You know what, you bastard?" He glared at the effigy, the unsightly program that struck him down "I am afraid. I'm afraid of the pain. I'm afraid of losing my mind. I'm afraid of becoming a corpse. But most of all, I'm afraid of disappearing without a trace for any reason at all."

Countless 'windows' shattered behind him, leaving one to cut through the gloom with its warm, glowing light.

"But that's okay." He admitted, his voice echoing throughout the digital chamber "It's okay if I'm afraid. It's okay if I'm in pain. I have to rise above it all, because…"

An intricate pattern, the Command Spells, radiated onto his left hand as he raised it against the effigy.

With limitless conviction, he took a breath and roared at the top of his lungs "I have yet to fight on my own terms!"

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"How exemplary. To show such valor even in the face of death itself."

An ethereal voice praised.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways, but if thine strength of heart has led you to me, then who am I to question His plans? Even if the masses refuse to hear thine humble pleas, I shall answer thine prayers. Now, grasp the light He has given thee and stand up high, for I refuse to let thy fate end here!"

Emerging from countless ones and zeroes, a figure materialized before him, standing proud and dauntless.

She was a young maiden, no older than he was, with golden blonde, braided hair, clad in immaculate steel armor, covering her chest, forearms, and legs, and with an ornate sword swinging loosely at her hip. However, what struck his attention the most was her crystalline amethyst eyes, which revealed a kindly, yet strong willed soul.

"I ask of you, are you my Master?" She asked.

Hakuno could only nod dumbly as she graced his presence with a gentle smile, only to turn a cold gaze towards the effigy standing behind them.

"Hmm… it seems as though the SERAPH wants us to continue with the preliminary round." She glanced upwards for a split second before putting herself between him and the puppet, summoning a radiant flag-like polearm, a standard, to her hands "Fine by me. I never liked watching it butcher the other participants anyway."

With a little twirl, she swung the standard at the effigy, crushing it with a mighty blow to the chest. The effigy flew backwards, crumpling against the ground, motionless, but the maiden would have none of it. Instead, she walked over to its prone form and slammed her armored foot right into its head, shattering it into pieces before it dissolved into nothing more than corrupted codes.

"There, all done!" She turned back to Hakuno, giving him a dazzling smile. Of course, for the latter it couldn't be more different. Hundreds of questions were racing through his head: Who was she? Where did she come from? What was her name-

"Ack!"

And as the adrenaline subsided, Hakuno could feel the pain from earlier come back with a vengeance. Falling to his knees as his vision went hazy once more, he could only see the maiden run back to him worriedly as his whole world faded to black.

* * *

Hakuno abruptly woke with a start, finding himself inside… an empty church of all places. He didn't even know there was a church in the area, but this little fact didn't matter to him.

He remembered _everything_.

His name was Hakuno Kishinami.

He was an NPC copy of the real Hakuno Kishinami that had gained sentience.

The real version of him, his other self, was afflicted with Amnesia Syndrome, and put in cryogenic stasis until a cure could be found.

He fought in the Moon Cell's Holy Grail War.

He defeated Leonardo B. Harway and Twice H. Pieceman and emerged victorious.

And his Servant… his steadfast companion in that digital hell…

He glanced between the rows of seats, finding his Servant kneeling before the large cross at the church's front. She was praying, praying for someone special to her to return to her. They were alone, yet all the candles were lit, and somehow, their gentle glow made her look as radiant as the moment they had met.

He stood up, making sure he didn't make any sudden sounds, and quietly let out one word.

"Ruler?"

Her breath hitched and his heart skipped a beat as she suddenly stood and turned to face him, her teary amethyst eyes full of hope.

"Ruler, is that you?"

He never saw it coming. With her superhuman speed, she tackled him onto the ground, hugging him and sobbing into his chest.

"Thank God…" she uttered in between cries "Thank the Lord Almighty, for He finally returned you to my side…"

He cried as well as he wrapped his arms around his Servant, hoping to never let her go again.

They were together once more. He didn't know how, nor did he know why. There were countless questions to be answered once their emotions eventually calmed them down.

But for now, all he cared about was staying in his Servant's warm embrace.

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 **[ATARAXIA_PROTOCOL_IN_PROGRESS]**

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 **A/N: And done! Wow, this chapter took longer than usual to write (mainly because I kept writing and rewriting a scene that I ultimately cut out). Fortunately I also made it longer than normal, so it's all good. Now before I give you guys the send-off, I want you guys to know one thing: events will not occur exactly like they did in the manga. Since Hakuno conveniently 'fainted' when he and his friends confronted Morisaki's clique, Morisaki gets in really bad trouble and never becomes a member of the Public Morals Committee. Not only that, Honoka, since she also used her magic during that skirmish, also got in trouble, and had to 'make amends' with Hakuno first before her relationship with the Shiba siblings could improve. Anyways, now that all's said and done, please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Extra or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei**

 **Chapter 4**

* * *

Several minutes passed, yet to them it felt like hours. The flickering light of countless candles and the reverent silence of the church halls only added to the timeless air that surrounded them. Yet the comforting heat of the candlelight glow paled in comparison to the warmth exchanged by Master and Servant. No, they weren't performing unspeakable acts in the house of God, both of them were far too innocent to even consider such thoughts; they simply held each other within a long, heartfelt embrace. Given the choice, they probably would have stayed like that forever. But time waited for no one, and eventually, as their hearts settled down, they moved from the church's long-worn floors to the row of seats before the altar.

"I believe I owe you some answers." Ruler said, drying the tears from her eyes "Although admittedly, I might not have everything you're looking for."

"It's okay." Hakuno said "I'll accept whatever you have to tell me."

"Of course." Ruler nodded "To begin with, I believe the Moon Cell, before it deleted us, created backup data of us and downloaded it into…" she hesitated for a bit "These bodies. It downloaded you into an alternate version of yourself, while it downloaded me into… Laeticia."

Hakuno blinked "It could do that?"

"The Moon Cell can create and sustain countless Reality Marbles indefinitely with little effort on its part. Something as simple as creating and downloading backup data is child's play to it." Ruler stated "However, it cannot just force a download onto anyone without any complications. For the download to occur smoothly, the host must be compatible."

"Compatible?"

"Well, if the body type was incompatible, then there would be a comfort disparity. If the personality and spirituality were incompatible, then the host would suffer from mental instability, and so on and so forth." Ruler shook her head "If it was going to download us safely, the Moon Cell would need to find us compatible hosts for the process to occur. For you it was easy, since your personality from the Holy Grail War was simply merged with an alternate version of yourself. As for myself, the Moon Cell took the liberty of finding a host back in my home country of France, namely Laeticia. From what I can tell, right after it downloaded my consciousness into hers, the Moon Cell merged them into one; right now, I'm technically both Ruler, the administrator of the Holy Grail War, and Laeticia, the French foreign exchange student."

Ruler's expression turned troubled as she finished that last sentence. It was clear she wasn't exactly comfortable hijacking someone else's life. After all, before she was a Ruler, even before she was a Saint, she was girl with a strict moral code. In fact, she was just as disturbed as he was over the deaths the Moon Cell brought, perhaps even moreso. Something such as _this_ , especially against her will, must have deeply unsettled her.

Hakuno gently slung one hand over her shoulder "Look, it's not your fault. The Moon Cell's the one who did this. Neither you nor Laeticia are at fault here."

Ruler smiled sadly "Thank you, Master. That makes me feel a bit better."

"Don't mention it." Hakuno smiled back "Though it makes me wonder why it didn't just summon you as a straight Servant instead of downloading you to into Laeticia."

"Well, the Ruler-class isn't supposed to be summoned by a Master, and thus gets its spiritron supply from the Moon Cell directly. However, when you managed to summon me, as both a Servant and the Administrator of the Holy Grail War, I got my spiritron supply from both it and you." Ruler's voice faltered she spared an annoyed look at the Moon through the stain-glass window "Of course, seeing as I'm not connected with the Moon Cell in this form, and I was apart from you, I couldn't exactly obtain my magical energy needs, which actually leads me into this…"

Ruler suddenly stood up, and with a snap of her fingers, materialized her armor, sword and all "It seems that to make up for the deficiency, the Moon Cell granted me, or rather Laeticia, magic circuits. Maybe the Moon Cell simply grafted them into Laeticia's body, or maybe she had them all along; I cannot be certain."

"Magic circuits?"

"Yes, magic circuits. They are used to charge spiritrons for use in spiritron-hacking, or 'code-casting', as most of the participants like to refer it." Ruler elaborated "However, that is only if we are within a digital world, where spiritrons are actually present. Their original purpose, was to store prana generated by the soul. However, an experiment in the year 1970 caused the world's prana supply to suddenly drain out, leading to magic circuits' use in spiritron-hacking. Nonetheless, since they're supplying prana to me as we speak, we can ascertain that such an event did not happen in this world."

Hakuno folded his arms "If that's the case, then why aren't more people using magecraft instead of psion-based magic?"

Ruler dismissed her armor and sat back down "It's probably due to psion-based magic being based upon technology and data rather than the soul, which makes it easier to access. That, and probably due to the rarity of magic circuits. The chances of magic circuits manifesting in a normal person is significantly smaller than the chances of developing a… whatever psion-based magic uses…"

"You mean a magic calculation area." Hakuno corrected.

"Yes, that." Ruler sighed, muttering something about how that was bugging her for a while before continuing "Since the prevalence of psions and the lack of magic circuits, it's unlikely that magecraft as it was originally known even exists." She shook her head "I'm getting off topic; prana and spiritrons at their core are still backed by the soul, thought and either the Root or SERAPH, while these psions are only backed by thought and technology."

"So, what you're trying to say is that despite the higher availability of psions, they are fundamentally weaker than prana or spiritrons." Hakuno summed up.

Ruler nodded "In a nutshell, that's what I'm trying to say. Was my explanation too difficult to understand?"

"Not really." Hakuno replied "It was a bit long, but for the most part it was understandable..."

The Grail War champion couldn't help but smile. His loving Servant was here with him.

 _She_ was here with him.

He really couldn't be any happier. After all, he was sure the Moon Cell would've deleted them after it was all over, not give them a chance to live normally. Granted, it somehow merged him into some alternate dimension version of himself and Ruler into Laeticia, but he figured dwelling on it would inevitably trigger some form of existential crisis, so he tried not to think too hard about it. It did make him wonder: if it merged the Moon Cell him and the First High student him, was he capable of both Magecraft and Modern Magic? Granted, his Magecraft, code-casting, spiritron-hacking or whatever it's called, was meant for use on Servants, but he could learn how to use it elsewhere-

"Master?"

Ruler's voice brought him out of his thoughts. It seemed as though he had simply been staring at her for the past five minutes, judging by the concerned look on her face.

"Master, if you're feeling tired, we can continue this at a later time." Ruler put the back of her hand against his forehead, leaning towards him anxiously.

"Perhaps that's it." Hakuno said, reeling away from her while sheepishly scratching his head "The Moon Cell's stupid downloads have been throwing off my sleep patterns for months now."

"I understand." Ruler stood up and outstretched her hand to him, smiling the whole time "Come Master, let's go home."

* * *

The following morning, Hakuno slowly awoke from his slumber, greeting the morning sun with a pleasant smile. It had been the first time in months he had a good night's sleep. No stupid downloads from the Moon Cell, no bittersweet flashbacks from the Holy Grail War, no bizarre episodes into the lives of-

Come to think of it, who were those people anyways? From what they saw, he couldn't be ordinary people, no, their abilities far surpassed anything a normal human could do. Could they possibly be… other Servants, before they ascended to the Throne of Heroes? But, if that's the case, whose Servants were they? He and Ruler never fought any of them before; whose could they possibly be? More importantly, why would the Moon Cell show him them in the first place? The spiritron supercomputer, as amoral as it was, was completely utilitarian in nature. It wouldn't just send him those dreams if it wasn't relevant to him. Perhaps Ruler would have a better clue of what they were.

"Zzz... Zzz…"

Speaking of the Saint.

Hakuno glanced to his left; Ruler had, at some point in the night, crawled into his bed and cuddled right next to him. He wasn't all that surprised. Occasionally, in some days of the Holy Grail War, there were times when the stress of it all became… hard to bear. It was usually after he… _killed_ his opponents, but every now and then it popped up once something happened. He'd been having nightmares; the Servants, the Masters, the shattered dreams, the regrets… just, the guilt was… almost unspeakable… He had been tossing and turning, crying, yelling in his sleep…

And every time, Ruler went to his bed and hugged him until he settled down and went to sleep. Sometimes she stayed in bed with him, sometimes she didn't. But every time, she made sure he woke soundly the following day.

"Ngh…"

Ruler yawned as she groggily sat up, glancing left and right before settling her gaze at her Master, smiling delightfully.

"...Good morning, Master."

"Good morning to you too." Hakuno replied. "Did you sleep well?"

Ruler nodded "Of course I did, you?"

"Best sleep I've had in months." He held her by the shoulder and brought her close, where they held onto each other for a good minute before parting

"...So Ruler," Hakuno slowly grabbed the sketchbook on his desk "That True Name Discernment Skill of yours, you still have it, right?"

"Yes. I should still have my entire skillset, despite this form." Ruler said as she went to his mirror and started fixing her hair "However, it's virtually useless unless the Servant in question is physically within my sight. Why do you ask?"

"Do you think it'll work on drawings?"

"Probably n- wait, what?" Ruler turned back to him with a confused expression.

"When the Moon Cell was downloading into me, it gave me these strange visions." Hakuno said as he gave it to her "half of them were about the Holy Grail War. The other half were… well, take a look for yourself."

Ruler took Hakuno's sketchbook and examined each and every drawing he made "How long have you been having these dreams?"

"Roughly seven months." Hakuno told her "I've been drawing them so I wouldn't forget them. Judging from how the Moon Cell sent them to me, I assumed they were other Servants. In fact..." he flipped to a page titled 'the burning saint' and said "I think it showed me you at one point."

Ruler froze as she gazed upon the portrait of herself before flushing a deep red "How flattering…"

Her fixated on the portrait of herself for a good minute before shaking her head and closing the sketchbook before she could flip the next page "Anyways, as I expected, my skill didn't activate upon your drawings."

Hakuno slumped his shoulders "Figures. Back to square one I guess."

"Not quite," Ruler handed the sketchbook back to him "Your hypothesis might still be correct; these individuals could still be Servants if the Moon Cell sent you visions of them. Unfortunately, besides myself, I don't recognize any of the Servants." She sighed in defeat "I apologize, Master. I don't have an explanation for you at this time."

"It's alright, Ruler." Hakuno patted her comfortingly on the back "We'll figure it out, together."

Pausing for a second, he glanced at the clock on his nightstand "We should probably get ready for class now, I guess."

"Agreed." Ruler said as she stood up, leaving the room as Hakuno went for his uniform "Oh, and Master?"

"What is it, Ruler?"

She walked back in, smiling coyly, her arms folded behind her back "You're really cute when you're asleep."

Hakuno flushed red at her sudden choice of words "W-What?"

Ruler giggled "Oh, nothing~! Just wanted to let you know!"

With one last, playful smile, she disappeared into her room, leaving Hakuno to think one thing:

Was she always this… bold?

* * *

Later that day, after class had ended, Hakuno yawned as he strolled on over to the 'entrance. Earlier, his class had this physical 'pop quiz' where they had to test their casting speed with the consoles they used for the entrance exam. The consoles themselves were actually just oversized CADs connected to machines, with all the speed-enhancing personalizations removed so casting speed could be properly weighted. Using them over time was supposed to improve their casting speed.

Anyways, his casting time on the console-CAD thing was 987 milliseconds, which was good for his first try, but not exactly the kind of improvement he was looking for… Okay, it was _way_ better than his entrance exam score, but considering he fainted in the middle of the latter, it really much of a fair comparison-

"Kishinami!"

"Kishinami!"

Hakuno whirled his head around, finding Tatsuya and Miyuki standing behind him, their expressions revealing both concern and determination in equal measure.

"Oh, hey guys-"

"What happened yesterday?" Tatsuya immediately interrupted, his stern gaze halting any train of thought Hakuno might've had.

"Who was that woman? How did she know you? How did she know us?" Miyuki followed up, her tone mirroring her brother's.

Hakuno stepped back uneasily as the two Shiba siblings got closer. It didn't really occur to them that they'd be so rattled after Ruler's stunt. Then again, now that he thought about it, while they were friends, he didn't know much about them. Perhaps they were really just worried about them after what happened. Then again, he really couldn't tell him about Ruler, nor about the Moon Cell, or… really anything related to that sick, twisted war.

So, taking a deep breath, he said the only thing he could say.

"Guys, calm down and listen to me for a minute." He put a hand on both their shoulders as they both flinched in surprise "Look, I'm actually touched you guys are so worried about me. However, what happened in the 'train' is between me and her, and me and her alone."

"But-"

"Am I not entitled to my own privacy?"

Tatsuya and Miyuki froze as those words entered their ears, allowing Hakuno to continue.

"Guys, we're best friends. However, I know without a doubt you guys have some form of private life I shouldn't and probably wouldn't want to know. I respect your privacy, so I implore you to do the same, alright? Now, I know you guys have some Student Council work you need to do, so I'm just gonna get out of your hair. See you guys tomorrow."

He turned away from the two before they could reply back. Was that the shittiest excuse he could've ever given them? Perhaps. Did he at least mean what he said? Course he did. Were they going to listen to him and give him some space? Well, all he could do was hope.

* * *

They hadn't listened to a damn word.

The following day, after class had ended, he joined Ruler for an afternoon on the town; apparently, she wanted to familiarize herself with the city with him. It wasn't even five minutes into their little stroll when Ruler took notice of them.

"Your friends are following us." She suddenly said as the two reached the sidewalk corner.

"Huh?" Hakuno turned his head to look, only for Ruler to cling onto his arm, shifting his focus onto her instead.

"Don't look at them directly. They'll realize we're onto them." Ruler stated as she pushed her large chest into her arm, making her Master blush.

"T-Then what should we do, Ru-"

"Hey," Ruler gave him a stern look "I am _Laeticia_ , remember?"

"S-Sorry," Hakuno gulped. He nearly forgot how scary she was when she's upset "What should we do, Laeticia?"

Laeticia glanced at the corner building the next block over and at the alleyway surrounding it, slowly putting her right arm around his waist "Follow my lead, Hakuno."

As soon as the pedestrian light turned green, Hakuno and Laeticia walked across the walkway and continued until they reached the building's alleyway, where Laeticia, bracing Hakuno's body for the whiplash, bolted at inhuman speeds, speeding through the alleyway until they were at the other end, just as his friends finished crossing the walkway themselves. From what he could see, Tatsuya and Miyuki had roped Erika, Leonhart and Mizuki into spying on him.

Now, despite being annoyed by the breach in privacy, Hakuno was more curious on how they thought having a large group tailing them from the same position was in any way stealthy.

"Eh? Where did they go?" Mizuki asked as she peered into the alley.

"They couldn't have gotten that far," Erika said as she peeked from over Mizuki's shoulder "I mean, it's not they could just have disappeared…"

Hakuno shrugged as the Master and Servant duo approached them from behind "Tatsuya _did_ say I lacked presence."

Leonhart snorted "Yeah, you don't stand out _at all_ , man-" he froze as the group collectively spun around, finding Hakuno and Laeticia standing right behind them "Uhh… we can explain?"

* * *

The group moved their conversation into a nearby cafe, where they made some quick introductions before before taking seats at a corner booth. It was a quaint place in Hakuno's opinion, what with all the traditional decoration and the wooden furnishings giving it quite the rustic feel.

Anyways, taking their seats, everyone, for one reason or another, kept their eyes on Laeticia and Laeticia alone. Tatsuya and Miyuki were the most obvious, with the former almost _glaring_ at his Servant. That reaction of his seemed a bit too extreme, even with her little stunt. The rest of the group, on the other hand, were just… _captivated_ to her appearance. Perhaps they weren't used to the presence of a foreigner (which, in his opinion, seemed about as racist as it sounded), or perhaps they were just downright entranced by her beauty, just like he was back in the opening stages of the Holy Grail War.

"So, you're the reason Hakuno's acting all secretive lately." Erika finally said as she took a sip of her drink, drawing Hakuno's attention.

"I'd think you would be more secretive when trying to follow us," Laeticia countered, drumming her fingers on the wooden table.

Leonhart uneasily scratched his head, leaning back against his seat "Well, Tatsuya did tell us about someone snatching and grabbing Kishinami on the train, so we were kinda curious."

"Yeah, I don't see why Kishinami wouldn't want to tell us about that," Mizuki added, offhandedly stirring her drink with a straw "You seem like a really nice girl, Laeticia."

Laeticia shook her head "It's really the other way around, Miss Shibata. I'm the one who asked Hakuno to stay private on my behalf."

Tatsuya raised a brow, staring at her with an analytic expression "Really? Would you kindly elaborate?"

Laeticia returned the inquisitive gaze with her own "With all due respect, I recall calling it private for a good reason. And I implore you to respect that wish, Mister Shiba."

From what Hakuno could tell, Tatsuya clearly wanted to retort. Perhaps the latter was used to always having the last word, perhaps he didn't even consider he was being rude in the first place. Hell, perhaps Laeticia somehow intimidated him by sheer force of will alone. Whatever the reason, Tatsuya just closed his mouth and frowned "You're right. I overstepped my boundaries. I apologize."

"Apology accepted," Laeticia replied with a sincere smile, taking note of Miyuki's split-second double take "So, Hakuno tells me everyone in First High School uses magic. Does everyone have their own personal style of magic or is there some sort of standardized form designated by the state?"

"Eh?" Miyuki blinked "Well, those who come to First High would obviously know the basics of magic, but there are definitely other classifications of magic that people would specialize in. For example, I prefer use of my Freezing Magic."

"I'm great with Speed-type and Convergence Type Magic." Erika raised her hand.

"I'm good with with Fortification Magic." Leonhart pointed his thumb at himself with a grin "I'm planning on using it to-"

"Nobody asked for your life's story, dude." Erika rolled her eyes.

"Hey!"

"I don't exactly specialize in any particular type of magic," Mizuki admitted, her voice slightly louder than normal to catch Erika and Leonhart's attention "However, I am sensitive to Spirit Particle Emission, but it really hurts my eyes so I have to wear special glasses for it."

Tatsuya sighed as Miyuki gave him an urging nudge on the elbow "Like Mizuki, I have no particular talents. However, I'm trying to become a magic engineer in order to make up for the deficiency."

As everyone finished describing their particular magic specialties, all eyes went to Hakuno, who, prior to that point, had been busy drawing in his sketchbook "What?"

"What?" Erika parroted "C'mon, everyone else opened up. What's your magic?"

"Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't exactly seen you use magic besides the entrance exam's test CAD." Miyuki noted.

Hakuno met their gazes with a relatively flat face as he put his sketchbook away "Well, in all honesty, I don't really specialize in any form of magic, as far as I'm aware. I was hoping to find my niche if I managed to make it into First High. Hopefully I'll find something I'm good at once I got here, but no look so far."

Leonhart reassuringly patted him on the back "Don't worry dude, you got us to help you along the way. You'll find your place in the world."

"...Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it." Hakuno sighed as he checked the holographic clock on the wall before putting a couple of bills on the counter, paying for his and Laeticia's drinks (and a tip) "We should probably get going; there's still a lot of the city we haven't explored yet."

"I agree." As they got out of their seats, Laeticia quickly turned around and politely bowed "It was nice meeting you all." before heading after her Master.

* * *

Later that night, once Hakuno and Laeticia returned home, he plopped onto his desk and opened up his sketchbook, stopping only at the last page.

"Here we go."

It was a sketch of the cafe, or the corner booth of the cafe to be more precise. All of his friends have been sitting around the corner. Tatsuya had one arm raised, looking ready to make a statement. Miyuki sat directly to his right, leaning over slightly, swooning over her brother as usual. Leonhart was folding his arms, rolling his eyes in disbelief at the Shiba siblings' antics. Erika was standing up, wagging one finger while trying to say something matter of factly. Mizuki had both arms raised with a sweatdrop, trying to get Erika to sit back down. And last but not least, Laeticia was sitting at the side, glancing at him (or the viewer) with an amused, happy expression. At the bottom of the page, he wrote the caption: "Memories are forever, friends are timeless."

After making a couple of last minute edits and adding a couple of little extra details, he closed the sketchbook and tossed it back on his desk once he was satisfied with the work. He always could work on Tatsuya's birthday present, that was coming up soon, but he was already ahead of schedule for that, so he could put that off for another night.

Hakuno then turned to the window, where the Moon illuminated the night sky with a pale glow.

His fists clenched tightly, he began to glare at it, tapping into some unknown fury he never knew he held.

"Hey, Moon Cell. I know for sure you're watching me, so listen up."

He took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving the Moon.

"You put me through that fucked up tournament you called the Holy Grail War. My opponents' blood shall never wash away from my hands. And after all that misery you put me through, even after I won it all in the end, even after I handled Twice for you, you still deleted me, despite being so obvious I had a soul of my own. All because I was nothing more than an irregular piece of code in your eyes. And yet…"

He slowly… unclenched his hands, as tears began to form out of the corner of his eyes.

"I cannot bring myself to hate you. I don't know why, but I can't. Even though my 'life' was short, it was fulfilling. I laughed. I cried. I made friends. Hell, I had to be the worst Master in the world when it first started, yet I still prevailed."

His eyes wandered towards the Command Spells on his hand, before wandering towards his ID tag on the desk.

"Not only that, you did… well, _this_ to me. I am both Hakuno Kishinami, the champion of the Holy Grail War, and Hakuno Kishinami the psionic magician. I… I'm not gonna even try to understand why you did that, nor will I ask how I'm not going insane with all these memories. But…"

He glanced at the opposite wall, where Ruler's room laid just beyond.

"You also returned Ru- Jeanne, to me… After all we said and done… She… she _betrayed_ you for my sake, despite her role as your administrator, yet you still returned her to me… I can't believe I'm saying this, but…"

He hesitated, trying to choose his words as carefully as possible.

"...Thank you, Jeanne means the world to me… and I am forever grateful for that…"

He smiled for a good minute before the fire in his eyes returned once more.

"However, you sent us here for a reason. I may not know why now, but I will find out sooner or later, whether you tell me or not. Just. You. Wait."

* * *

 **[WARNING]**

 **[IMPENDING_CONFLICT_DETECTED]**

 **[ACCURACY_89.25%]**

 **[ESTIMATED_TIMESPAN:_WITHIN_7_DAYS]**

 **[MONITOR_{REGALIA}_RESPONSE_TO_CONFLICT?]**

 **[_]**

 **[{REGALIA}_SURVEILLANCE_IN_PROGRESS]**

 **[ATARAXIA_PROTOCOL_IN_PROGRESS]**

* * *

 **A/N: And Done! Wow, I am quite a bit late with this, frankly because I had a lot going for me this past month: finals, family, rewriting scenes I'd ultimately cut, etc. But I'm done with it now! Good, because that first part was simply** _ **a lot**_ **of exposition. Now, I know not much happened during this chapter, since it was used more to establish Hakuno and Ruler's relationship. As you've noticed, Ruler's just as fond of him as his other Servants. She went through the same experiences that Nero, Tamamo and EMIYA went through, and trusts Hakuno with all her heart, just like them. Now, after all's been said and done, Happy New Year and please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka Koukou no rettousei**

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

Five days later, after classes finished for the day, Hakuno scrolled through some emails on his phone. One was from Miyuki: she wanted to know if someone named Honoka apologized to him; turns out Honoka, aka Mitsui, wanted to make amends with the Shiba siblings some time after she befriended him. Perhaps befriending the two was her intention in the first place, and she only joined Morisaki's group in a misguided attempt to associate herself with Miyuki. Well, no harm no foul, he let Miyuki know she's a pretty nice girl. Another was from Erika, who wanted to know what Laeticia's into so she could organize a group event without leaving her out; he made a mental note to ask Ruler once he got back. And finally, there was one from Tatsuya, who gave him a head's up that the Guidance Counselor, Ono-sensei, was taking surveys on the First Years, in order to make a generalization about their societal attitudes. He also said that the Guidance Counselor is going to try and dress provocatively in an effort to get more information out of him… which sounds more like grounds for sexual harassment than anything else.

On an unrelated note, Hakuno began wearing gloves in order to 'comply with the dress code policy' (read: hide his Command Spells because Mari from the Public Morals Committee thinks they're tattoos and will whoop his ass for showing them in public). They were an old pair of leather gloves from his dad's toolbox. They were a bit dirty, and he had to remove them whenever he wanted to use his phone, but at the very least they provided a good grip. Besides, those glove-shaped CADs on the market were way too expensive, even compared to the already pricey conventional models. Jeez, no wonder his parents-

"Mibu, can you at least hear me out-"

"We have nothing to talk about, you fucking Bloom!"

Hakuno turned to his right, where he found these two second years, a Bloom boy and a Weed girl, having a shouting match in the school courtyard while a small crowd formed around them. Though, calling it a shouting match is a bit of a stretch; it was really the Weed girl nearly _raving_ at the Bloom boy like a madwoman while the latter desperately tried to get a word in, to no avail.

The Bloom boy raised his hands in surrender "I'm trying to say sorry-"

"Oh, so NOW you're sorry?!" The Weed girl snapped, shutting her counterpart up "You think a simple apology can justify what you did to me?!"

"Well-"

"NEVER talk to me again, you arrogant son of a bitch!" The Weed girl stormed off as the Bloom boy tried to reach out his hand towards her,only to draw it back when the words failed to form on his lips.

Hakuno could only cringe empathetically as the crowd, whose free show was now over, dispersed to do their own business, leaving the Bloom boy standing there in dejection, paralyzed by his counterpart's scathing rejection.

Feeling bad for the young man, Hakuno held his breath and approached the Bloom "Excuse me-"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU-?!" The Bloom suddenly roared as he snapped towards Hakuno, only to reel it in just as quickly with an apologetic expression "...S-Sorry about that, man. I'm… kinda having a rough day right now, as you probably saw... a couple seconds ago…"

"It's alright," Hakuno said as he glanced in the direction the Ponytailed Weed stormed off towards before returning towards the young man "Um, I know we just met and all, but… you seem like you need a friend right now. Would you like to talk about it?"

* * *

Hakuno massaged his temples as he bore his eyes straight at the Bloom "Let me get this straight; you knew her since middle school, yet instead of properly introducing yourself then, you just sat back and 'admired her swordsmanship'?"

The Bloom, Kirihara, shifted his gaze uneasily "When you put it like that, I kinda sound like a total creep."

Hakuno facepalmed; 'total creep' was a bit of an understatement. When he sat Kirihara down at this cafe across the street, he expected the latter to set the stage for a huge breakup or something along those lines. Instead, Kirihara and the Weed girl, Mibu, were never in a proper relationship in the first place. In fact, they never even properly _met_ ; Kirihara just 'watched her from afar' until high school. Of course, jumping to conclusions was never a good idea, so he just let him continue.

"Anyways, when I saw her again in high school…" Kirihara's voice faltered "She had changed…"

"Many people use the transition from middle school to high school as a chance to change their image." Hakuno pointed out.

"I know that, but this was different." Kirihara's eyes wandered to his drink as he offhandedly stirred the glass in a tiny circle "The next time saw her… her swordsmanship changed, almost like it was… tainted."

Hakuno cocked a brow, his curiosity piqued "Tainted? How does a fighting style get 'tainted'?"

"Well, her stance became more feral, her swings were furious, and that confident face of hers was marred with resentment and rage… It was like she threw away all her grace and skill from before and replaced it with absolute bloodthirst." Kirihara shuddered for a second before continuing "And it wasn't just that. Every time I saw her, she seemed to be on a permanent hair trigger, like any little thing could've set her off." Kirihara almost turned away in disgust "As a fellow swordsman, I knew I had to do something."

Oh boy, this should be good… "So I take it you talked to her about what happened?"

Kirihara winced as he sheepishly scratched his head "Well, actually… I thought our swords would do the talking so I… provoked her into fighting me during Recruitment Week."

Hakuno stared at him blankly "Wait, that was you?"

Kirihara chuckled half-heartedly "Yeah, not exactly my best moment, especially since I played the arrogant Bloom card to actually incite her to attack. Hell, I even used the Sonic Blade spell to spark the inner warrior in her and well… I got a bit carried away."

Hakuno's mouth fell agape "You're telling me you've been stalking this Mibu girl all this time, never once bothering to actually introduce yourself, and once you noticed something wrong with her, instead of actually talking to her, _you provoked her like a grade schooler before nearly killing her with Sonic Blade_."

Kirihara flinched as Hakuno raised his voice "Well… to my credit, I was stopped by that Tatsuya dude before I did anything permanent. And for what it's worth, I did try to apologize to Mibu after I gave it a few days."

Hakuno suppressed the urge to facepalm again. While Kirihara seemed like a decent guy for all intents and purposes, his actions spoke far louder than his words, and not in a good way. His 'swordsman mentality' seems to be doing him more harm than good; he was so focused on actually fighting Mibu he apparently forgot his actual purpose, namely _finding out what was wrong_ , in the process. Granted, his observations over her were a tad alarming, but they were still only one side of the story.

"Well, what should I do man?" Kirihara asked expectantly.

Hakuno sighed once more as he put his hands on the table. He wanted to help Kirihara with his girl problems (for lack of _any_ better terms), but this was a bit out of his depth. So, he asked the latter one simple question:

"Did you ever consider consulting her parents about it?"

Kirihara blinked "Huh? How would that help?"

"Parents usually notice if there's something's wrong with their children." Hakuno pointed out "Even if they didn't notice anything wrong, bringing it to their attention would be more than enough for them to intervene."

He could almost see the gears in Kirihara's head turn before the latter shook his head in denial "No, that won't work. What if Mibu recognizes me and just kicks me out of her house?"

"What makes you say that you need to be the one to tell them?" Hakuno countered "You could just give the Guidance Counselor a head's up and let her handle the rest. It's uncanny how many problems could've been solved if teenagers simply asked trustworthy adults for help."

Kirihara paused, staring back at Hakuno dumbly. Clearly he never thought about that before "You know what, that just might work." He sighed in relief "Thanks man, I really needed this."

"Glad I could help." Hakuno smiled half-heartedly "Just... don't get your hopes up with Mibu after this is over. I think you burned that bridge the moment you played the Bloom card."

"Alright man. I'm gonna go talk to Ono-sensei about it right now. I'll see ya later."

Kirihara stood up and put a couple of bills on the table before leaving the cafe with a friendly wave. As for Hakuno, he turned to his left, finding Mitsui and her stoic-looking friend sitting at a nearby table; the former nodded at him approvingly while the latter gave him a friendly thumbs-up. It was clear they saw his little pep-talk with Kirihara from start to finish, and judging from their reactions, they clearly liked what they saw.

Ah well. Returning the friendly gestures with a short, polite nod, Hakuno paid the cashier up front (plus a tip) before going on his way. He had to admit, the past fews weeks have been quite eventful, what with all that's been happening recently. But of course it's not like it could get any crazier, right?

* * *

"ATTENTION FELLOW STUDENTS! WE ARE THE VOLUNTEER ALLIANCE SEEKING TO ABOLISH DISCRIMINATION WITHIN THE SCHOOL!"

...He stood corrected.

The following day, just as class was about to end, the speakers blared to life as a 'volunteer alliance' began exhorting abolitionist rhetoric for all the student body to hear.

"ALL OF US HERE AIM TO BECOME MAGICIANS! HOWEVER, AT THE SAME TIME, WE ARE ALL ALSO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! WE CANNOT OVERLOOK THE FACT THAT THE SCHOOL DISCRIMINATES AGAINST STUDENTS WITH POORER MAGICAL ABILITIES!"

Hakuno could hear several of his fellow classmates cheer excitedly, while roars of protests could be heard from some of the Course One students outside. However, for the most part, stunned silence was the resounding consensus among the general populace.

"MAGIC IS NOT ALL THERE IS TO US! TO THIS END, WE DEMAND FOR DISCUSSIONS WITH THE STUDENT COUNCIL AND THE CLUB MANAGEMENT GROUP ON EQUAL GROUND REGARDING THE ABOLISHMENT OF DISCRIMINATION! UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET-"

The PA system abruptly shut itself off. It seems that someone had the sense to shut off the power. As the voice on the speaker was silenced, the voices of his classmates came to life as countless conversations echoed throughout the room. Some were happily cheering on the 'Volunteer Alliance', others were denouncing it with an equal amount of fervor, and some actually left the classroom altogether, either to get out of this hot mess while they still could, or to watch the next chapter of this debacle.

He couldn't blame any of them for being curious, especially since he was just as curious as they were. Rising from his seat, he tossed his sketchbook into his bag, picked it up and went into the hall. Jeez, for all its fame and prestige, this school was pretty chaotic.

* * *

When Hakuno got to the PA room, he found a crowd surrounding it, with the Public Morals Committee setting a good perimeter around the door. Within the perimeter was Tatsuya, Mayumi, Mari, a long haired Second Year girl and… this _very_ ripped Third Year boy (seriously, the guy was _huge_ , as in _Teenage Bodybuilder 2095 huge_ ). Whoever the latter two were, they either had to be from the Student Council or the Public Morals Committee. Anyways, it seems like Tatsuya (for some reason) was the one facilitating the negotiations between the Student Council and the 'Volunteer Alliance' with his phone-

"Do you honestly believe I'm that stupid?!"

"I never said you were stupid-"

"Don't mince your words with me! I know you're planning on detaining everyone in here the second I open the door! Did you honestly believe I'd sell everyone out just to save my own hide?!"

"Did you even listen to-"

"Shut up! I won't let you silence us!"

...And utterly sucking at it, if the yelling from behind the door was of any indication.

In all seriousness, it was a mystery why the faculty weren't intervening, or why they hadn't already intervened in the first place.

Mari frowned as she massaged her throbbing temples before barking at her subordinate "Tatsuya, cut it out! You're just making things worse!"

Tatsuya cringed as he reluctantly handed the phone over to her "I apologize. I assumed I could handle the situation, but I was wrong."

Mari took the phone, her face interlaced with disappointment and anxiety "I'll let it slide this time because it was your first mistake, but next time you let me handle the negotiations."

"Understood."

 _Or_ they could call the staff over because they're obviously biting more than they can chew! Seriously, what kind of irresponsible faculty would simply leave such an incident for their Student Body to handle? Sure, this school puts a ton of emphasis on self-determination, but surely this must have crossed the line enough for the staff for them to intervene.

"Students, please move aside."

Like the Red Sea, the mob of spectating students parted as the Vice Principal Yaosaka-sensei made his way through them and towards the PA room door.

Mayumi stepped up nervously as Yaosaka-sensei knocked on the door "Vice Principal-"

"Not another word, Miss Saegusa, Miss Watanabe. I shall handle it from this point onwards. We shall talk about this _mishandlement_ later." Yaosaka-sensei said sternly, his eyes locked on them and Tatsuya before turning towards the door "I need to ask for the students in the PA room to please unlock the door as soon as possible. You all know that I am far more reasonable than Principal Momoyama himself, so if you have anything to say, please say it now."

"We want to end the discrimination between the Course One and Course Two Students!" One Student barked "Course Two Students have been repeatedly bullied and discriminated against by the Course One Students and the School itself! We want it to change, now!"

"Yes, yes I believe we all heard you during your little announcement." Yaosaka-sensei admitted. "But before you say anything else, please tell me this: why didn't you simply make a petition?"

The once raucously rebellious students suddenly went silent.

"If you simply made a petition and had a majority of the students sign it, the administration would have no choice but to run an investigation and look into it." Yaosaka-sensei explained "Why would you endanger your own education in one of the finest high schools in the country with a stunt like this? What would you gain by bringing all this negative attention to yourselves? All you're doing is shooting your message in the foot with this outrage and you know it. Just please, let yourselves out of the room and we can all figure this out like adults."

A couple minutes passed in complete silence. The Vice Principal, the Student Council, the 'Volunteer Alliance', nobody made a single noise until…

 _*click*_

The door unlocked, with a small group of students filing out one by one, a look of deep, deep shame on their faces. It seems that Vice Principal Yaosaka's words struck a nerve with them.

"Tch…"

All except for one, at least.

The last of the 'Volunteer Alliance' to leave was the ponytailed girl from yesterday, Mibu, if Kirihara was to be believed. Unlike the rest of the 'Volunteer Alliance', she didn't seem particularly repentant for causing such an uproar. In fact, her expression seemed downright spiteful instead of regretful.

Whatever the case, it seems that Yaosaka-sensei didn't notice it, sighing in relief as he folded his arms "Well, now that that's over with, why don't we set up a meeting and sort this out."

* * *

Afterwards, Vice Principal Yaosaka had corralled the 'Volunteer Alliance' and the Student Council into the Conference Room along with the guidance counselor. Due to Tatsuya's interference in the whole incident, he was brought in as well. Once they were all in, Yaosaka-sensei told the rest of the students that their show was over and to go back to their own business.

Naturally, since Hakuno's club was cancelled (mainly because his club president was a member of the 'Volunteer Alliance') and all his friends were unavailable for their own personal reasons, he simply went back to his house for the day. The inner details of that event and their implications still gnawed at the back of his head though, especially since that Mibu character Kirihara was talking about earlier was involved. Hopefully Kirihara talked to the guidance counselor and had her talk to Mibu's parents by now.

Anyways, Hakuno returned home, finding his dad sitting at the couch, watching a news report about an Anti-Magic Protest while his mom was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to help Laeticia with her math homework.

"...To get to the square root of a number, you…"

"Root…? Number? ...I don't…"

The keyword here being: 'trying'. Laeticia was struggling despite his mom's best efforts, judging from how strained look the former had on her face. Perhaps he'll check in with them later.

His father glanced at him "Oh. Hey there sport. How was class?"

"Eventful, to say the least." Hakuno muttered as he plopped right next to his father "So, are you and mom still working later today or-"

"We're free for the rest of the week if that's what you were asking." His dad said, tousling his son's hair "Also, we contacted your friends back at the old place's Magic Research Division. They were surprised you managed to make it into First High School."

"So was I…" Hakuno muttered under his breath ''I mean, I'll make sure to call them later, after I get better settled in school."

His father sighed worriedly "Well, just be careful, alright sport? I hear magicians aren't the most beloved people in the world right about now."

Case in point, his dad pointed at the newscast:

"Earlier today, the Anti-Magic protests outside the Diet Building turned dark when a magician from the JSDF, Captain Shigeru Sanada of the 101 Independent Magic Equipped Battalion, opened fire onto a helpless crowd, killing seven with his sidearm before killing another twenty with his magic and injuring dozens more before he was eventually gunned down by police." The reporter said, scenes of a magician initiating a series of spells into a crowd of fleeing protesters playing behind her "Hajime Tsukasa, the leader of the Blanche political organization's Japanese branch and one of the key organizers of the peaceful rally, had this to say."

The screen cut to a conceited-looking man with a pompous haircut and ugly glasses, who began to hold a news conference with a dozen microphones on the podium and even more reporters out of the camera's line of sight.

"This is clearly an attack on us peaceful protestors by those Magicians controlling our government, the Hundred Families!" Hajime Tsukasa declared loudly, arrogance and self-righteousness dripping through his words "They want to silence anything that is a threat to their power! But we, the righteous members of Blanche, shall not stand for this injustice! We shall do everything in our power to curb the growing power of the Hundred Families and we shall accept all who shall join us in our fight for equality!"

The newscast cut back to the reporter, still standing in the psion-scorched street "Despite this claim by Hajime Tsukasa and the lack of response from Major Harunobu Kazama, commander of the 101 Independent Magic Equipped Battalion, police have yet to discern a possible motive…"

Hakuno's dad lowered the volume just as the news changed back to something about that serial killer, his point made very clear.

Hakuno folded his arms uncomfortably "Don't worry dad. I'm nothing like those nutjobs out there. I'll be sure to use my Magic responsibly... or not at all."

His dad sighed, his face still marred in concern "Well, just don't do anything that will get you in trouble-"

"Ugh, I give up…" Laeticia groaned as she face-planted her textbook, muttering incoherent (or probably French, she hadn't followed up on teaching him the language yet) phrases in defeat.

"Hakuno's mom shook her head, stirring her coffee cup in her left hand "Laeticia, you're overreacting. Mathematics are a pain in the ass, but it's not impossible."

His dad glanced at him before motioning to the two at the kitchen table "Sport, could you give your mother a hand? I already tried to help Laeticia earlier. Poor girl does not like math."

"Sure dad." Hakuno nodded before heading over to his mother and Laeticia "Mom, tag out. I'll take over from here."

* * *

 **[WARNING]**

 **[CONFLICT_IMMINENT]**

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 **[ESTIMATED_TIMESPAN_WITHIN_24_HOURS]**

 **[{REGALIA}_INSTALLED]**

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 **[ANTI-THEFT_MEASURE:{hide_regalia()}_ACTIVE]**

 **[ANTI-THEFT_MEASURE:{bind_regalia()}_ACTIVE]**

 **[ANTI-THEFT_MEASURE:{punish_thief(128)}_ACTIVE]**

 **[{record_data()}_ACTIVE]**

 **[{moon_crux()}_STANDING_BY]**

* * *

"Thanks for helping me with my math homework yesterday." Laeticia said, smiling cheerfully as the two made it to the station.

Hakuno yawned before smiling back "Don't mention it. It was my pleasure. You're still gonna teach me French later, right?"

"Le soleil se lève-t-il chaque matin?"

"What?"

"Of course I will, silly!" Laeticia playfully smacked him in the arm "I am a woman of my word, after all."

Hakuno chuckled. He had to admit, Ruler is acting a lot more cheerful than he remembered her. Perhaps she's normally like this when the pressure from SERAPH is off, or maybe this was Laeticia's original personality affecting her own. Either way, it felt like quite the breath of fresh air.

"Well, you two seem to be getting along quite nicely."

Hakuno and Laeticia turned around as the two Shiba siblings approaching them from behind. There was something off about them, though. Instead of that air of confidence, grace and borderline incest they usually had, they were sharing this air of depression that wasn't exactly pleasant to stand around in.

Laeticia raised a brow "Did something happen with you two? You don't seem very very happy…"

Tatsuya shook his head wearily "Well, something did happen, yesterday…"

Tatsuya then proceeded to explain the circumstances surrounding his negotiation with the 'Volunteer Alliance'. Apparently his plan was to call in Mibu (that person's been coming up a lot recently) and have her open the door and have her discuss the issue, only for her to call him out on it immediately afterwards, leading to the issue's escalation and the vice principal's subsequent intervention. He then began to describe the events afterwards. As it turns out, only the Student Council President, the Public Morals Committee Chairwoman, and the Chairman of the Club Management group (Mayumi, Mari and some guy named Katsuto Juumonji) are the only students allowed to make negotiations with any unruly student bodies without faculty consent, with said power non transferable to any other student. Tatsuya had no right to take control of the situation; nearly losing control of said situation did not help his case at all. Had Mayumi, Mari and Miyuki not vouched for him, he would've easily been ejected from the Public Morals Committee. Instead, he was given some other form of punishment which he refused to specify while the 'Volunteer Alliance' got off with two months' detention.

Why Tatsuya needed to go into all that detail, or why they all just stood there and let him talk the whole time while their respective 'trains' came and went _at least twice_ was a mystery to him.

"...that's what happened." Tatsuya concluded, sighing in relief "Huh, I feel a bit better after telling you guys all that. Doesn't exactly help me understand what went wrong, but still…"

Hakuno yawned, hoping he wouldn't go into another rant again when-

"Are you sure that's all there is to it?"

All eyes went to Laeticia, who apparently paid attention to Tatsuya's whole speech from start to finish.

"I have told you my side of the story from start to finish," Tatsuya told her, raising a brow at her puzzlement "Is there something wrong with how I told it?"

"It's more like there's something wrong with the story itself rather than how you told it." Laeticia corrected, folding her arms "What made you think that this Mibu girl wouldn't have gotten upset with the way you talked to her?"

"I told her that if she opened the door, the Student Council President and the Chairman of the Club Management Group would negotiate and she would be guaranteed immunity. I do not understand why she thought I was trying to play her for a fool."

Laeticia's amethyst eyes steeled as she gazed accusingly into Tatsuya's "That's because _you were trying to play her for a fool and she realized it_. First of all, if your student council president wanted to talk about negotiations, then she would have talked to the group's leader through the door. If you were the one who were to tell her this, and you did so over the phone, you were clearly singling her out. Not only that, you only offered _her_ immunity, which means that in the event of surrender, her friends would not be spared. And friends would not sell one another out for a brief reprieve. Mibu realized you were targeting her as the weakest link and lashed out at you once she unraveled it just as easily as I had this very moment. Believe it or not, Mister Shiba, but that plan of yours wasn't as well-thought out as you believed it was."

Miyuki's expression soured as Laeticia made her analysis "With all due respect Laeticia, what Onii-sama did was to contain the Volunteer Alliance with the best of his abilities. Why are you putting all the blame upon him?"

"When did I ever say I was blaming him for anything?" Laeticia shot back, immediately silencing Miyuki "I was merely analyzing his approach for that particular situation given the context that has been provided. Never once did I say anything with any intent to harm. If I had, I would have said that the entire incident was his fault; but I didn't. I said that his target had caught onto his plan by noticing the obvious tells of a trap. If you wanted to go on and play the hero, it would have been more appropriate to empathize with the volunteer alliance on some level and try to help the present authority figures empathize with them as well. That way, the volunteer alliance's destructive behaviors would be curbed while all involved parties could eventually find a resolution that would satisfy everyone. Understand?"

Laeticia's brutal yet constructive critique rendered the two Shiba siblings speechless, unable to raise a proper counter argument against her. She saw through every single flaw with Tatsuya's approach and tore it down effortlessly, all before offering her own strategy for him to use at a later time.

And she did it all without a hint of malice.

Hakuno could only gulp, praying he'd never have to be on the receiving end on one of her lectures.

As the four stood there silently, one of the 'trains' slowed to a halt right next to them.

"Oh, there's my train." Laeticia said with a smile as she boarded her train "I'll see you guys later, then."

Laeticia smiled and waved at them as her 'train' slowly accelerated and left the station, leaving Hakuno alone with the two Shiba siblings.

* * *

 **[WARNING]**

 **[CONFLICT_IMMINENT]**

 **[ACCURACY_99.98%]**

 **[ESTIMATED_TIMESPAN_WITHIN_SIX_HOURS_THIRTY_MINUTES]**

* * *

"Excuse me, would you like to sign this petition? We're collecting signatures for…"

"Sure, anything to put those Blooms in their place."

It seems that the 'Volunteer Alliance' (that was a really stupid sounding name if you say it enough times) had really taken the Vice Principal's advice advice to heart. Several of its members have been running around collecting signatures throughout the school day. For obvious reasons, a lot of the Blooms refused to sign their petition, as did a number of Course Two students that were still alienated from yesterday's turn of events. Still, he heard that they obtained a significant number of signatures; there's no way the administration could ignore them now. Admittedly, he didn't sign the petition himself; while their extreme actions from yesterday did turn him off, it was because of their message than anything else. 'End discrimination between Course One and Two Students'. That was their plan; it was more of a goal than a plan. How were they supposed to end discrimination? Start an anti-bullying campaign? Get the administration to hire more teachers? Change the uniforms to all have the school emblems? Those were three plans he came up with off the top of his head, yet the recruiters just parroted the 'End the discrimination' stuff they said on the airwaves yesterday. What, were they supposed to walk in and demand change without knowing how to actually initiate it? Come on, that doesn't make any sense. Give him a solid plan and maybe they'll get his signature.

Speaking of ideas, it turns out that Tatsuya has some… interesting ideas in regards to what is considered discrimination, if their discussion (one-sided extended lecture on Tatsuya's part) during lunch period was of any indication. Apparently, Tatsuya thinks the discrimination is self-inflicted due to their inability to realize that there will always be a talent discrepancy between the Course One and Two students, and that they should put up with it and prove themselves in other ways, otherwise the only ones who see themselves as inferior are themselves.

...Hakuno was no psychologist, but that line of thinking was bound to rub someone the wrong way. He always figured the discrimination came from how Blooms tend to go out of their way to treat Weeds like crap simply for being in Course Two. Tatsuya's analysis seemed pretty harsh in comparison.

Anyways, after class ended, Hakuno went to the bathroom to wash his hands, his hands feeling clammy after wearing gloves all day.

* * *

 **[WARNING]**

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* * *

 _*ring, ring*_

Once he finished drying his hands, Hakuno recieved a call from Erika. He answered "Hello?"

"Yo, Hakuno!" Erika greeted "Are you busy this afternoon?"

"No, not particularly."

"Great!" Erika exclaimed excitedly "We were planning on catching a movie later. Wanna come?"

"Sure. Mind if Laeticia comes with?"

"Hey, any friend of yours is a friend of ours, dude." Erika said "Tell her to go... to..."

 _*Thud!*_

The call suddenly went silent. Hakuno quizzically stared at his phone for a moment before putting back against his ear "Hello? Erika? You still there?"

No response. Did something happen on Erika's end.

 _*Thud!*_

 _*Thud!*_

Hakuno hung up and exited the bathroom, finding several students collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

"What the- Hey, are you okay?" Hakuno worriedly asked as he ran over to the nearest student, frantically trying to shake him awake.

"It's no use. They're all knocked out unless I say otherwise."

Hakuno flinched, cautiously turning around as a figure appeared behind him, giving him an amused, smug smile.

He was a caucasian man, with pale, short hair, wearing some anachronistic european garb, carrying some sort of tome under his right arm. He was smiling, but those pitch-black eyes of his revealed a cruel, depraved soul hidden within.

Hakuno carefully took a step back. The young man's presence alone sent a cold shudder down his spine.

He knew what _he_ was.

"Greetings, magus." The young man bowed in a theatrically sardonic manner "I go by a far different name, but for now, you may call me Caster. I am ever so pleased to make your acquaintance."

* * *

 **[WARNING]**

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* * *

 **A/N: Dear God, am I late with this chapter! Before I say anything else, I would like to apologize for the long delay. You won't believe how many times I had to rewrite the last few scenes before it turned out the way I wanted it. Seriously, at one point there was supposed to be either a riot scene and a fire scene instead of this last one. Then I realized they inevitably wouldn't lead to this point so I had to scrap it until I eventually came up with this. Anyways, by this point you must have realized that this is not a typical Mahouka fic anymore. And no, I am not going to tell you the identity of that Servant just yet; the fun is always in the mystery, isn't it? Anyways, sorry for the delay. I'll try not to take too long with the next chapter, even though Fate/Grand Order just released and I'm having the time of my life with it. Until then, please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei**

 **Chapter 6**

* * *

 **[{record_data()}_ACTIVE]**

 **[RECORDING_{Caster}_CLASS_DATA]**

 **[0.00%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

First High faded away.

Plaster walls turned to stone. Ceramic tile floors turned to brick. Light fixtures turned to rows and rows of torches. Classrooms turned into iron cells. And the students at their feet? Their uniforms became armor of steel, becoming soldiers straight out of a European museum.

And at the center of it all was Caster, standing in front of him, casually flipping his tome open while the world around them became a medieval nightmare.

"You know, I really wasn't expecting to find a magus in this place, especially not a remnant of the Holy Grail War."

Hakuno's eyes widened in shock, and Caster smirked in response "Oh, who are you fooling, magus? I can sense the connection between you and your Servant, clear as day. Besides, those magic circuits of yours were the only thing that protected you from my little spell."

Hakuno bit back his shock and steeled his resolve. He wasn't the clueless Master he was at the start of the Grail War. Panic wasn't going to save him. He needed to calm down and analyze his situation. Okay, Caster turned the world around them into something out of Dark Souls, either through his magecraft or his Noble Phantasm; definitely a red flag. The fact he clad his unconscious classmates in armor is also an unpleasant sign; they might not even be fully 'unconscious'. Mental Interference magic- magecraft? Possibly. He can never rule anything out when it comes to Servants. Odds are, Caster is expecting and/or going to instigate a fight. Yeah… he's probably gonna need a Command Spell for this.

"So, tell me magus, do you know what's going on?" Caster asked, nonchalantly stepping over the unconscious students as Hakuno backed away from him "Because one moment I was getting deleted alongside that asswipe of a Master, the next I'm standing over the moron as he and a few of his associates were busy doing some back alley dealing. Jackass had the gall to act like he didn't know who I was, the little..." The Servant began to rant on and on for a brief moment before remembering Hakuno was there "Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What do you think happened?"

"...I don't know." Hakuno hesitantly shrugged, pretending to be more terrified than he actually was.

Caster's expression dropped, his body language conveying little more than mild, exaggerated annoyance "Ugh, figures. I swear to God, there's something wrong with that stupid moon of ours. Ah well, you're no use to me then."

Caster snapped his fingers, and the armor-clad students rose to their feet, their eyes vacant and empty, before grabbing him, each pinning him against the nearby wall with one hand, and throttling his neck with the other.

* * *

 **[CONFLICT_INITIATED]**

 **[MASTER_{Hakuno_Kishinami}_AND_SERVANT_{Ruler}]**

 **[VS]**

 **[MASTER_{Atrum_Galliasta}_AND_SERVANT_{Caster}]**

 **[Live_or_Die_by_the_Sword]**

 **[What_power_do_you_hold_in_your_hands…?]**

 **[Dancing_Flames,_Decaying_Earth,_Withered_Ocean]**

* * *

"Hahahahahahaha! _Sooooooo_ _sorry_ , magus!" Caster suddenly giggled madly as he comically threw his arms over his head and twirled on his heels, not sounding the least bit sincere "As much as I would love having someone with actual Magic Circuits under my wing for once, it will bring me far more joy to see another fellow Servant suffer, collapsing to their knees in despair upon their failure to save their precious Master before they fade into oblivion! Oh, the look upon their face as their spirit shatters upon seeing their beloved Master's broken, lifeless form, powerless to save them from their horrible fate! Oh, what I'd give to see such fresh despair! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Caster twirled in ecstasy, laughing madly all the while before boring his pitch-black eyes into the young magician "So go ahead! Call upon your Servant, magus! Use a Command Spell if you have to! I'm more than happy to wait if it means watching a hero's spirit break, live and in person!"

Hakuno glared daggers at the smug Servant, his struggle for answers, to free himself, or even to breathe secondary to the contempt he felt towards this bastard before his eyes.

 _He was going to make Caster regret ever giving him a fighting chance._

With his consciousness fading away as the 'knight's' grip tightened around his neck, Hakuno's resolve remained steadfast, unleashing the power of his Command Spell and beckoning his Servant to his side.

* * *

 **[COMMAND_SPELL_ACTIVATED]**

 **[COMMAND_SPELLS_REMAINING:_2]**

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 **[{True_Name_Discernment}_ACTIVATED]**

 **[OBTAINING_SERVANT_INFORMATION_MATRIX]**

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 **[ENEMY_SERVANT_INFORMATION_OBTAINED!]**

 **[MATRIX_LEVEL:_E]**

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 **[CLASS_DATA_RECORDING_INTERRUPTED]**

 **[44.76%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

"...-a-te-!"

"...M-s-r!"

"Master!"

Once he fully came to, Hakuno found Ruler cradling him in her arms, a look of panic on her face as she desperately shook him back to her senses.

"...R-Ruler?" Hakuno croaked as he awkwardly sat up, rubbing his throbbing neck. That really, really hurt.

Ruler sighed in relief as she embraced her Master "Thank Heavens you're alright! What happened? What did Caster do to you? What did-"

"C-Calm _*cough*_ down!" Hakuno wheezed, giving himself a moment to let his windpipe return to normal "What... happened to Caster?"

Ruler frowned, avoiding his gaze "He escaped. It was either saving you and letting him flee, or assaulting him and risking your life; I chose the former. However, I can sense his presence somewhere below us; Lord knows what he's planning."

"Did you _*cough*_ identify him?"

"...Yes. Yes I did." Ruler said, clenching her fists together tightly "Master, I know you're hurt, but I need you to tell me what happened."

Hakuno rubbed his neck, cringing in pain as he told his faithful Servant everything that transpired in the past few minutes.

Once he finished going over every detail, Ruler's expression turned troubled "I see." she rose to her feet, pulling him up in the process "Master, I need you to vacate the premises as soon as you can; I shall handle Caster alone from here on out."

Hakuno's response was almost immediate "No way, I won't leave you here alone with that psycho."

Ruler flushed red for a moment before immediately shaking her head in the negative "Master, I appreciate the gesture, but there is no Holy Grail War in place; you are as valid a target for Caster as I am, if not moreso. I'm unsure I will be able to protect you completely while engaging him in battle."

Hakuno didn't like it, but he understood her intentions. He would have been a liability to her at best and a hindrance at worst. Hell, even if his neck didn't feel like a crushed soda can, he still wouldn't be able to help her; he had no access to his old Code Casts and psionic magic was useless against magecraft anyways, much less a Servant. Still though, that didn't mean he didn't want to be there to support her. Urgh, if only there was something he could do...

* * *

 **[TEMPORARILY_DISABLING_{hide_regalia()}]**

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 **[{synchronize()}_AVAILABLE]**

 **[USE_{synchronize()}?]**

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 **[CASTING_{synchronize()}]**

 **[SYNCHRONIZING_WITH_SERVANT_{Ruler}]**

 **[0.00%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

Ruler froze as her amethyst eyes wandered to Hakuno's left hand "Master, when and where did you get that?"

Hakuno blinked in confusion "Get what?"

" _This_." Ruler took his left hand in her right and brought it up to eye level, revealing a crown-like ring on his ring finger "Where did you get this ring? I need you to tell me now."

Before Hakuno could even respond, the ring began to glow, engulfing them both with a blindingly bright light.

* * *

 **[SYNCHRONIZATION_IN_PROGRESS]**

 **[50.00%_COMPLETE]**

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 **[{LUNAR_SOVEREIGN}_IS_INJURED]**

 **[CASTING_{heal(16)}]**

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 **[{LUNAR_SOVEREIGN}_HAS_BEEN_HEALED]**

 **[RESUMING_SYNCHRONIZATION]**

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 **[SYNCHRONIZATION_COMPLETE]**

 **[100.00%_COMPLETE]**

 **[{LUNAR_SOVEREIGN}_IS_NOW_FULLY_OPERATIONAL]**

 **[{REGALIA_RING}_IS_NOW_{SOVEREIGN'S_REGALIA}]**

 **[{record_data()}_ACTIVE]**

 **[{extella()}_STANDING_BY]**

 **[{moon_crux()}_STANDING_BY]**

* * *

...Okay, that was weird. The crushing pain in Hakuno's neck was gone, so that was a good sign, but that didn't tell him where he was… At first, everything was black, devoid of any sights and sounds, but gradually, his senses began to clear up, and he began to see… Ruler, standing alone in that stone hallway. She removed her gauntlet and stared at her bare left hand, which was now wearing the enigmatic ring on her ring finger. It was strange; one second, he felt like he was standing right next to her, holding her hand, the next he felt his consciousness wrapped comfortably around her body, holding her in a warm, loving embrace.

He actually kinda liked it.

"Well… that was unexpected…" Ruler stated, staring at the ring with wide eyes "Master, if you can hear me, please respond."

"...Okay, I'm here." Hakuno said reassuringly "Now what just happened?"

Ruler massaged her temples, clearly frustrated at the recent turn of events "The SERAPH's lousy timing is what happened."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The ring you were wearing- well, _I'm_ now wearing- is called the Sovereign's Regalia, otherwise known simply as the Regalia." Ruler explained "It's a special Mystic Code that was supposed to be granted to the champion of the Holy Grail War, but for… obvious reasons… you didn't receive it." she glared upwards for a moment before continuing "Look, your consciousness is currently within the Regalia, so you'll be out of harm's way so long as you don't will yourself out of there."

"Are there any other functions of this Regalia thing that I should be aware of?"

Ruler nodded in affirmation "You have no idea. I'll be sure to teach you how to use it as we go along, but for now, taking down Caster is our top priority." With that said, she slipped her gauntlet back on as the Sovereign's Regalia transformed into a golden armlet, the ornate accessory clasping comfortably over the steel plate. Summoning her standard to her hands once more, she dashed down the hallway, determined to take down the rogue mage once and for all.

As she left, Hakuno spared a glance at the two 'knights' she left behind; both were slumped against the wall, limp, unmoving, definitely unconscious this time, and with their 'armor' dented in some _very_ painful-looking places. She obviously didn't kill them; that would've went against her beliefs (it also helped that they were still breathing, that too). However, well… one thing's for certain:

She sure was scary when she's upset.

* * *

It was a labyrinth.

The 'castle' twisted and turned as Ruler traversed through its treacherous corridors. So many doors. So many halls. So many distortions that only righted themselves as Ruler passed through them, the magecraft warping the campus dissipating as she marched onwards. Yet despite pressing on, the castle felt emptier and emptier with each moment, the deafening silence that echoed throughout broken only by the rapid rhythm of Ruler's greaves clanging against the rugged rock floor. They could not find nary a living soul as she proceeded, but that was not to say that the labyrinth was empty. Everywhere they looked, they found dozens upon dozens of medieval torture devices, all covered in blood and rust, simply scattered about like children's toys. And against the walls were… were _human corpses_ , all so horribly disfigured that they were barely recognizable as human. Some were dismembered, others were mutilated, some were dismembered _and_ mutilated... and then there were the ones _charred and smelted onto the walls themselves_. Their eternal expressions of suffering ensured that whoever they were, they were _alive_ when throughout the whole ordeal.

They weren't real, Ruler kept assuring him so as she passed them by with a look of horrified disgust, but they served as a grim reminder of what may await his classmates if they didn't hurry.

He didn't want that on his conscience. Neither of them did.

It didn't help that Caster was deliberately stalling them with all this bullshit; the longer Ruler was occupied with the illusory maze, the longer Caster had to enact his plans, whatever they were. They had no idea what Caster was planning, but if the whole medieval dungeon imagery surrounding them was of any indication, it wasn't any good.

Now, while Caster's (probably) nefarious schemes should've been troubling him more (and it probably would; he was gonna have nightmares about this place for weeks), there was still something gnawing at the back of Hakuno's head. Caster already made clear he was a participant of the Holy Grail War, so…

Were _all_ Master and Servant pairs downloaded by the Moon Cell?

Hakuno shook his head. While that was probably the case, they could focus on that later; Caster was their top priority now. Still though, this kind of thing was just really… wrong… "Jeez, Caster must've been really sick in the head to come up with all this."

"You have _no_ idea." Ruler grumbled "He's not too strong in a one-on-one fight, but using Territory Creation alongside his magecraft like this is right up his alley."

"That bad, huh? Actually, now that I think about it, you never told me his identity. Is there something wrong?"

Jeanne paused, giving a glance at the Sovereign's Regalia, her sad expression unbefitting of the Grail War's administrator "...Well, you could say that Caster is a bit of a personal issue for me."

That piqued his interest "Personal? Did you know Caster when you were alive?"

Jeanne shook her head "No. I've never actually met him in person, but-"

" _Damn that… God forsaken… Dauphin!"_

A slurred, hate-filled curse, obscured into echoes, shattered the silence that permeated the stone walls.

Ruler froze upon hearing that voice "No… it can't be..."

"Ruler?"

Within moments, Ruler ran, no, _sprinted_ towards one of the iron doors, only to find herself unable to open it, no matter how hard she struggled. All she could do was watch through the thin, peephole left so conveniently open for her to see.

* * *

The room was a mess. There were dozens of books and loose pages scattered throughout the room, with a couple in particular dangerously close to a pair of lit candles sitting on one of the wooden desks. Two barrels (empty or not, it was hard to tell) of what could only be alcoholic beverages littered the area, with all sorts of cups and goblets, either intact or broken, scattered haphazardly across the room. But the most striking thing about this room were the two adults in the room, positioned across from each other. One was unusually pale, with surprisingly well-toned skin and these large, bulging eyes, dressed in robes befitting a mourning nobleman. The other was notably even more muscular, having a piercing gaze and a rather impressive beard, garbed in plate and leather armor and having a large broadsword sheathed on his hip.

"Gilles, would you please stop this madness?" The large man complained, saddened by his counterpart's drunken stupor.

The inebriated, large-eyed man, Gilles, glared at him, angrily slamming his alcohol-filled mug on the nearby table "I most certainly shall not!" He roared "That stupid Dauphin killed her! She put that fool on the throne and as thanks he left her to die with those damned Englishmen! She was a _Saint_ , yet he left her to burn like an unholy heretic!"

The large man sighed, groaning as he massaged his temples "Gilles, that was years ago. You need to let it-"

"SHUT UP!"

Gilles roared as suddenly stood up and tried to smash his mug at his friend's head, only for the latter to simply grab his arm mid-swing, staring at him with an almost pitiful expression on his face.

"Gilles, I will only say this one more time." The man pleaded, despite the steel in his voice "Now I'm not saying that what happened to her was a tragedy beyond compare. I _am_ saying that obsessing over her death for this long and guzzling wine like there's no tomorrow is injurious to your health. And if someone such as _myself_ is telling you to hold off on your excessive drinking, then you know it is bad. Please, if not for me, then for her memory; just accept her death and move on with your life. She definitely wouldn't want to see you becoming a drunken hermit throwing your family's riches away. She would have wanted you to live your life to the fullest, helping others as a man of God is wont to do."

A brief silence ensued, the two men staring at each other tensely as the mug slowly slipped out of Gilles fingers, clattering on the floor and spilling what was left of its contents on the ground.

"Y-You're right, La Hire…" Gilles uttered, his arms hanging limp as the large man released his grip "Perhaps I have dwelt far too long in the past. Maybe I should just let it go and try to replenish the fortune I've lost." he chuckled as he turned towards his friend "I never knew you to act so... paternal during the war."

The large man, La Hire, simply shrugged in response "What can I say? The lass had quite an effect on me as well." He walked over to a door on the left, presumably the exit "I've got to go now. While it has been good to see you again, the battlefield is my true calling. I'll be back to visit at a later time."

"I shall show you out." Gilles offered.

"No need, I think I've figured out the layout of your estate, at least well enough to find the door." La Hire mused, waving off his friend "May our friend smile upon you from heaven, chum."

La Hire left, leaving Gilles alone in his study. He glanced at one of the books, a bible, sitting at his desk. He picked it up and stared at it, reminiscing of a time long past "...Would you have really wanted me to move on, Jeanne?"

Before he could open it, another voice spoke up "That man has such a naïve viewpoint, if I do say so myself."

Gilles flinched, dropping the bible onto the floor as he reached for the dagger sheathed on his waist "W-Who goes there?!"

He turned back to the door, where a hooded figure- no, _Caster_ , stood behind him, grinning ear to ear as he approached, holding a leathery spellbook in his hands "No need to fear, my dear sir. I am merely a traveling cleric. Your servants welcomed me into your home and I wished to introduce myself to my gracious host."

Gilles stared at him warily as he sheathed his blade and gave a brief bow "A cleric? In that case, I am Gilles de Montmorency Laval, Baron of Rais. Forgive my manners and the appearance of my abode, sir, but I have been going through some troubling financial times as of late."

The cleric, Caster, somehow managed to grin even wider "Is that so? If that's the case, then we have so much to discuss. Fufufu..."

* * *

The door opened.

The illusion faded, and everything within the room disappeared, leaving behind a sole staircase to the floor below.

"Gilles… the Baron of Rais…" Hakuno said slowly, recognizing the name from an earlier conversation he had with her "You mentioned him before; you said he was your friend during the Hundred Years War."

Ruler nodded gravely. Outwardly, she was as fine as ever, but he could feel her shuddering to the core "Yes he was… but Caster… Caster was the one who took my dear friend away from the road of virtue and onto the path of ruin. Caster was the one who subverted a righteous man in his moment of weakness and turned him to madness. Caster, no, Francois Prelati was the accomplice of Gilles de Rais, the mentor the infamous Bluebeard himself."

* * *

Ruler descended down the staircase, silent, gripping her standard tighter and tighter with each step. She probably would have unconsciously crushed the standard had it been any other object, not that she would've noticed in her current condition. She wasn't acting like herself. He could feel her shaking with each step, shivering with each breath. She wasn't afraid; no, that look in her eyes was not of someone with fear. No, she was _saddened_ , or even _mortified_. She knew Gilles back when she was alive, and she knew his fate by virtue of the Moon Cell's databases. But seeing… it was completely different than simply knowing about it. After all, watching someone die is far different than hearing about a death from word of mouth.

And Caster… he must've known this. He must've figured out her identity the second they saw each other. Now the bastard was using his own memories to screw with her head; he wouldn't put it beyond that jerk to show her Gilles' downward spiral into madness if it meant making her suffer.

Hakuno could tell his Servant was unnerved by Caster's illusions. Jeanne's racing heart, her trembling shoulders, her wavering eyes. Hakuno couldn't bear to see her like this. He had to say something.

"Jeanne, can we take a break for a moment?"

Jeanne stopped in her tracks and glanced at the Sovereign's Regalia, now an armlet bound to her gauntlet "Master, is something wrong?"

Hakuno sighed. Always leave it to Jeanne to worry about him when she's the one under duress "Jeanne, are you okay? You seem upset."

Jeanne's gaze shifted uneasily "The Gilles I knew in life was a good man, Master, and an even better friend. Back then, there was no hint of the monster history would have immortalized him as. But as you saw, he fell into despair after my demise, and Prelati… he preyed upon him during his moment of weakness..." she paused for a brief moment before continuing "However, I have made my peace with what became of him and the heinous crimes against mankind he has done. I pray for him and the people he has slain with equal measure. Prelati, on the other hand…I'm almost certain he's been running rampant right under my nose. This," she gestured to the 'castle' around them "is just the tip of the iceberg. I can't believe I let this-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, for just one minute." Hakuno cut her off, surprising the young saint "Jeanne, you didn't do anything wrong; you couldn't have known any of this would've gone down. Caster will get everything that's coming to him, but you need to snap out of it! It's not your fault Gilles went insane, it's not your fault he killed all those people, and it's _certainly_ not your fault that Caster was free to do as he pleased this whole time! IT'S NOT! YOUR! FAULT!"

It took Hakuno a second to realize he virtually screamed right into her ears. Jeez, where the hell did that come from? He was about to apologize when-

 _*SMACK!*_

Jeanne smacked herself across the face, absolving herself of doubts and worries, invigorating herself with newfound resolve-

"Argh!"

Only to regret it the moment the pain was registered, reeling back as she nursed her now reddened cheek "I... probably should've removed my gauntlet first…"

Hakuno winced. A Servant-level smack to the face, self-inflicted or not, had to hurt "Ouch. You okay?"

"Quite a bit, actually." Jeanne snickered, putting up a brave smile as the swelling subsided "Thank you for that talk, Master. Perhaps that was all I needed."

"Don't mention it. Actually, I've been meaning to ask: how does La Hire fit into Caster's story?"

"Well, now that you mentioned it-"

" _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH-_ _*snap*_ "

A bloodcurdling scream, one that could have only belonged to a _child_ , echoed through the air before suddenly stopping with a sickening crunch, sending the conversation between Servant and Master to an abrupt halt.

Ruler paled, but bit back her shock, mentally bracing herself as she turned to the nearby door "Master, prepare yourself for what you're about to see."

"After that scream, I wouldn't know what else to do." Hakuno muttered as Ruler went to the door's peephole.

* * *

There was a large, crimson red summoning circle inscribed on the ground, marked with what could only be blood. At the center of it was a spear sticking out from the ground, with a severed, rotting boar's head impaled on its tip. Everything else was pushed to the walls: the books, the furniture…

And the bloody, desecrated corpses of children tossed haphazardly to the side, crudely piled on top of each other, all rotting with an ungodly, ferric stench.

At the other end of the room was Gilles and Prelati. The latter was standing, towering over a kneeling Gilles, holding the corpse of a bloody, recently deceased child in his hands, the child's face forever frozen with excruciating suffering.

Prelati smirked, clasping that skin-covered spellbook in his hands "See? What did I tell you, friend? Terror is at its best when fresh, when hope is granted ever so briefly, only to be crushed, stomped into the ground without mercy. The horror in their eyes is magnitudes better, is it not?"

Gilles laughed maniacally as he crushed the poor child's throat in his hands "You're right! It's so… euphoric! So… blasphemous! So… so… COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

His laughter increased as he mutilated the corpse, dismembering the body limb from prepubescent limb until it was no longer recognizable "More…" he raved, cackling horridly, his clawed hands twitching in an arrhythmic pattern "We must do more! We must do more blasphemous acts! We must do more to refute the existence of God!"

Prelati blinked, seemingly genuinely surprised. Pleased, but surprised nonetheless "Really? What about all that stuff you said about your fortune?"

Gilles scoffed, standing up and tossing the mutilated corpse aside like a broken doll "What is money when we have the chance to disprove an entire religion and their God?! After all, He can't possibly be real when we perform all these atrocities without divine retribution! And even if He is, He deserves to see his disciples suffer! After all, he made Jeanne abandon me for him, and she burned like a witch after all she did in His name! He deserves to suffer for all he's done!"

Prelati could only chuckle in response, smirking as he opened his spellbook "I knew we were going to get along, Gilles. I believe I have just the thing in mind…"

* * *

The illusion faded once again, and the door swung wide open, the stone staircase almost inviting them downwards.

Ruler could only frown in response, gently taking a deep breath "Master, are you okay?"

"...Yeah ...I'm probably gonna have more than enough nightmares to last me a lifetime, but I'll live." Hakuno hesitantly replied, thanking his presence in the Sovereign's Regalia (probably) prevented him from vomiting his lunch in disgust.

Ruler's expression turned disheartened "It is horrible what happened to these innocent children, but unfortunately, these atrocities were in the past; there's nothing we can do for them now." She quickly made a sign of the cross and made a quiet prayer "Master, allow me to teach you how to access the Regalia's true powers. They may come in handy during our final confrontation with Caster."

* * *

This was it. Caster was on this floor. There was nowhere else for him to run and hide behind illusions.

"I know you're nearby, Caster. You'll only be wasting time and prana by delaying the inevitable." Ruler called out, her voice echoing throughout the halls until eventually a steel door materialized to her right.

"Are you ready to see what lies beyond?" Ruler asked, if only in concern for her Master's psyche.

"Let's just get it over with." Hakuno stated as Ruler went over to the peephole. He did not care about the coming nightmares these illusions will bring. The sooner Caster showed this last card, the sooner he will appear. The sooner Caster appears, the sooner he and Ruler can take him down. The sooner he's taken down, the sooner this sick game of his will all be over.

* * *

The circle was still there, as was the boar head on a pike; the maggot-infested flesh had long decayed away, leaving behind a bare, pale porcine skull in its place.

However, that was the only thing that had stayed constant in the change in times. Hanging from the walls were barely-living children, their hands and feet nailed to the walls in groups of three, sacrilegious parodies of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Saint Dismas, and Gestas the impenitent thief. Against the wall were furniture, but not ones of artisanal wood and stone, but of _human bodies_. Severed arms and legs made the base structures, bloody torsos made cushions and tabletops, and twisted bodies, some with their limbs and heads swapped, were made to become what could be only be sick, demented statues. Hanging over the crucified children were trophy heads, not of any game, but _human heads_ , their wide-eyed faces forever frozen in agony. And sitting on the flesh-borne furnishings were more limbs, or to be more precise, _tools and inventions fashioned from tendons, organs and bones._

Gilles and Prelati were nowhere to be seen, with only the sound of approaching footsteps from the side door being the only signs of life.

"Gilles, old friend!" It was La Hire, holding a lit candelabra over his head in one hand and a small cask of mead in the other "It's your old friend La Hire! None of your servants answered me at the door so I showed myself-"

La Hire stopped in his tracks, the cask and the candelabra clattering to his sides as his mouth went agape in shock. He was an experienced soldier for France's campaigns, a war hero and veteran through and through, but _nothing_ could have ever prepared him for something like this. "W-What in God's name?!"

"Who goes there?!"

Gilles, now draped in a bloody red apron, came out of another side door, holding what appears to be an adult human femur over his head menacingly, only for his hostilities to drop like a hat upon realizing who he was talking to "Oh, La Hire. What a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to see you here."

His tone was friendly and polite, fitting more of a fine nobleman greeting a comrade of the past rather than a depraved murderer confronting the intruder of his lair. Of course, the dissonance between his demeanor and the gore surrounding them only served to horrify the hardened commander even further.

"Gilles, what is this?!" La Hire demanded, gesturing to everything in the room with outraged fury "What is all this horror?! What have you done to all these people?!"

Gilles blinked and pointed at the crucified children almost matter-of-factly "Well, I'm not sure if you can see it, but over on that wall there-"

"I can see what's on the walls!" La Hire yelled "I can see everything in this whole God-forsaken room!"

"Then why did you as-"

"What is wrong with you, Gilles?!" La Hire screamed into his old comrade's face "Why would you do this to your fellow countrymen?!"

For some reason, Gilles had the nerve to be stupefied by the question "Why, to refute the existence of God, of course." he said matter-of-factly.

La Hire couldn't believe what he was hearing "Don't you hear the madness of your words, Gilles?! You are actively aspiring to go against the Church by slaughtering your people like cattle! Why on earth would you want to do something as stupid as that?!"

"Well-"

Before he could finish, Prelati barged into the room, carrying the ribcage of a recently murdered child in one hand while holding a knife and his spellbook in the other "Hey Gilles, what did you do with that femur? I just got this great idea-" he paused as he turned at La Hire "Oh, I didn't know you had company over. I would've cleaned-"

"YOU!" La Hire grabbed Prelati by the neck and slammed him against the wall, forcing him to drop the ribcage, knife and spellbook "I remember you! You were there when I last came to Gilles' abode! You must have been the one who has corrupted him with this bloodshed, to destroy his faith in the Lord above!"

Despite suffocating under the commander's large, plated hands, Prelati only smirked in response, boring his pitch-black eyes at La Hire and whispering so only he would hear "And what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?"

La Hire glared at Prelati as he tightened his grip "YOU SON OF A BITCH! I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND, MONSTER!"

La Hire began throttling the deranged cleric as Gilles tried desperately to separate his two friends from each other "La Hire, what is the matter with you?! Stop this madness!"

"Madness?! This monster corrupted you and turned you into a murderer and desecrator of human lives!" La Hire raged as he reached for the dagger on his belt "Jeanne would have been appalled and ashamed at what he transformed you into!"

Gilles trembled in suddenly spiked fury, sputtering inaudible nonsense until he screamed at the top of his lungs "SHUT THE HELL UP! HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW?! SHE COULD BE BURNING IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY FOR ALL WE KNOW!" he grabbed the knife Prelati had dropped and stabbed him in the back of the neck, furiously pounding the blade through the commander's body over and over again until there was no doubt the latter was dead, falling onto the ground in a bloody, nearly headless heap.

Once his rage died down, Gilles stared at his friend's corpse in shock, his blood-soaked hands trembling in realization "W-W-W-What have I done?! I just killed him… I-I just killed one of the few friends I had left in the world..."

Gilles began crying, weeping over La Hire's body only for Prelati to pat him on the shoulder "Yes you did. You just committed a great atrocity." He crouched down, plucking the knife from Gilles' hands and piercing it into La Hire's heart, as if his death by near decapitation wasn't inglorious enough "But y'know what? If God does exist, there's no way He would've let this gone unpunished. And look," Prelati gestured to the room around them "No divine retribution, no angel from heaven to strike us down. And best of all, no God to smite us down from whence we came."

Gilles wiped his large, tear-ridden eyes as he met Prelati's gaze " _*sniff*_ Yeah, I guess you're right. Ha… Haha… HahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The two howled in maniacal laughter together as they rose to their feet in perfect unison, dragging the 'corpse' of La Hire towards the side door.

* * *

At first, the two thought that the illusion would've faded once again after the 'show' was over.

But it didn't.

The room as it was remained long after the door opened; only Gilles and Prelati vanished, leaving the 'corpse' of La Hire to fall unceremoniously in a sanguinous, forsaken heap.

Dear Lord, Caster sure did not like the poor guy.

"..." Ruler silently walked over to La Hire's 'corpse' and, knelt closed its eyes, before clasping her hands together in silent prayer. She knew it wasn't the real La Hire, but that still didn't mean she wouldn't take a moment to mourn an old friend, illusion or not.

"Farewell, La Hire." Ruler quietly said as she stood up, making the sign of the cross "You were a great mentor and friend. And while this is not your true fate, you shall be missed all the same. May we meet again in another life."

"...Farewell, La Hire…" Hakuno prayed, echoing his Servant's heartfelt goodbye. He did not know the grizzled warrior personally, but Jeanne spoke very highly of him, almost as high as she had with Gilles. It was only right he gave the man his last respects as well.

Once the two said their goodbyes, Ruler stood up, fixed her skirt and went over to the side door Gilles and Prelati headed towards, finding yet another staircase heading downwards.

* * *

They were praying.

The room Ruler entered was a twisted effigy of a cathedral's main halls, with the missing students, all garbed in robes identical to Caster's, were praying incoherently in the parallel pews towards the stone altar at the hall's end, with Caster cheerfully leading them on, playing the role as the spiritual leader of his own congregation.

* * *

 **[RESUMING_CLASS_DATA_RECORDING]**

 **[44.76%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

Caster looked up, smiling cheekily as the unified 'prayer' came to a halt with a wave of his hand "Welcome, Saint. Do you like what I did with the place? I think it looks much, much better."

Ruler just pointed the spearhead of her standard at Caster in response, glowering at him contemptuously "The game's over, Prelati. Stop this nonsense right now."

Prelati raised a brow, holding his tome under his arm whilst lazily leaning back on the altar "Stop? Why would I stop? I'm having the time of my life toying with these so-called 'magicians'. Besides, I thought you would enjoy seeing our mutual friend again."

"You were no friend of Gilles, Prelati. You just corrupted him for your sick game." Ruler retorted, her amethyst eyes glaring daggers into Prelati's pitch-black orbs.

Prelati only snickered in response " _Au contraire_ , my dear Saint. I had Gilles' best intentions at heart."

"By tempting him into killing innocent lives?"

"By giving him a form of release from all the pain he was enduring." Prelati corrected, making sure he kept his smug, know-it-all tone "You see, when you died, he was left all alone in the world, angry, broken, unable to lift a finger against those who wronged him. All that resentment and rage bottled up, festering for months, nay, years on end, just waiting to explode. It was… _breathtaking_ …" Prelati's face flushed red, almost swooning at the thought "So, I took the sad man under my wing and taught him all that I know, and let him release his fury against the God who took his precious Saint away from him." He chuckled "Actually, if you think about it, it was _you_ who caused his spiral into madness. Fufufu..."

It was beyond obvious Caster was trying to get under Jeanne's skin, to piss her off, to break her spirit. It was the card he's been playing ever since she arrived.

"What are you really here for, Prelati?"

But, play the same card over and over again, and frankly it just gets annoyingly predictable.

Prelati raised a brow "Oh, so you don't care about Gilles? Some friend you are."

Ruler ignored him and continued "My Master and I were talking it over for a while after your second illusion and it got us thinking about your goals. First of all, even though the Grail War has long since ended, I am more than careful enough to know when myself or my Master are being watched, Servant or not. Not to mention, according to my Master, you were just as surprised as he was. No, you found him out by _chance_. Once you found out he was a Master, you thought you could get a cheap laugh out of getting him to call me over and killing him before I had a chance to rescue him. But you didn't. The moment you saw me, you saw a golden opportunity not to break just any Heroic Spirit, but a _Saint_. And not just any saint: the very Saint that fought alongside Gilles de Rais. So you made all of this up as you went along just so you could see me fall into despair, just as you did with Gilles. But as you can see, you failed, Prelati. I shan't be broken, not by the likes of you, nor by anyone else."

The tables have turned. Each word that came from her lips pierced through Prelati without discretion. The scathing analysis, created by both Hakuno and Ruler, tore away at Prelati's psyche without mercy. The rogue mage now found himself at the receiving end of a speech meant to break apart his actions piece by piece, getting angrier and angrier with each word.

But she wasn't even done yet.

"You know there were many things wrong with your 'story' that it was almost laughable." Ruler said, her tone mimicking the snarky demeanor of the Master whispering in her ear "I was actually startled for a moment, but then I noticed a couple things wrong. First of all, why on Earth would Gilles say 'Cool' back in the 1400s? Not to mention, La Hire dying by Gilles' hand? Please, he died years after Gilles perished. Those few clues alone told me you were intentionally stretching the truth in order to get under my skin. Once a lie is seen through, it doesn't take long for the rest of the illusion to shatter."

Prelati grit his teeth, gripping his tome so hard his fingers were digging into its leathery cover "Oh, so you care not for all the lives we've taken so far?"

Ruler shook her head, twirling her standard behind her back "The lives you've taken in the past are in the past; I can do nothing more than pray for them. As for any lives you've taken in the present, I'm more than sure you'll be more than eager to confess your sins once I'm done with you."

At this, Prelati slightly regained his composure, grinning maliciously as his tome opened wide, pages flipping rapidly as it floated out of his hand "Oh, hoping for a confession, are you? If that's the case, you're gonna have to kill me first."

* * *

 **[CLASS_DATA_RECORDING_COMPLETE]**

 **[100.00%_COMPLETE]**

 **[{Caster}_CLASS_DATA_RECORDED]**

* * *

Ruler dashed over to Caster, twirling her standard over her head as one of the 'disciples' impeded her way. Undeterred, Ruler planted her standard into the ground and vaulted over the 'disciple', only to find that Caster disappeared from the other side, replaced by another one of his 'disciples'.

"KILL THAT SAINT, MY DEAR DISCIPLES! KILL HER! KILL HER NOW!"

The pews disappeared as a pair of wicked knives, no doubt another one of Caster's illusions, materialized in each disciple's hands as Caster's voice echoed throughout the hall, his unhinged voice reflecting his anger and madness. The 'disciples' themselves fared no better, their entranced, empty eyes contorting with an unfounded rage.

"BURN THE WITCH!"

"BURN THE WITCH!"

"BURN THE WITCH!"

"BURN THE WITCH!"

...So, they have knives, but they still want to burn her at the stake? How exactly would that work for them?

Ruler didn't even flinch "Master, your orders?"

"I'm gonna cast that {extella()} Code Cast. Beat Caster's mind control spell out of their systems."

"Understood."

* * *

 **[CASTING_{extella()}]**

* * *

 _*FWOOSH!*_

A digital event horizon erupted from the Sovereign's Regalia and engulfed them all, transforming the illusory stone hall into the Spiritronic Sea itself.

"You're in my world now!"

With the 'disciples' trapped inside its wake, Ruler flew towards the nearest 'disciple' and slammed her standard into his shoulder.

 _*THWACK*_

All of the disciples recoiled upon contact, taking the same impact as the receiving 'disciple' by will of the Reality Marble.

But she wasn't done.

Arms, legs, shoulders, limbs, she kept up her assault against the disciple, taking care not to cause any permanent damage, until the Reality Marble closed, with each and every single 'disciple' collapsing onto the ground, bruised and broken, but free from Prelati's spell.

Shortly after their 'disciples' were defeated, Prelati reappeared by the altar, clearly in pain. It seems like he was caught in the Extella Reality Marble alongside his 'disciples'.

"Y-You bitch…" Prelati snarled, staggering backwards as his pitch-black eyes glared daggers at the Saint "I-I'm gonna kill you… and when I get ahold of that Master of yours, I swear-"

"You know what's sad, Prelati?"

Ruler calmly walked over to Prelati, letting that smug bastard know she's the one in control. She and her Master had been analyzing everything that had happened since he first revealed himself, and both came to the same conclusion:

"You barely qualify as a Servant. You barely qualify as a Heroic Spirit. Your sole claim to fame is being the 'mentor' of Gilles, and even then, you were barely even that. At your core, you are little more than a pathetic, cowardly bully."

Jeanne dismissed her standard, the banner of the Lord dissipating in a shimmer of white light.

"You prey on those who are vulnerable, those at their weakest, and you manipulate them for your own amusement. And once you establish your power over them, you exploit your victims for all they're worth."

Jeanne then removed her sword from her hip, still sheathed within its scabbard, and held it inverted by its covered blade, with both hands gripped tightly around it. She would never draw the God-given sword out of its sheath for this bastard or any other scum like him.

But that didn't mean she wouldn't use it to beat the ever-loving shit out of this unrepentant sinner.

"And once you find that one person you can't control, you run and hide like the coward you are." Jeanne bored her amethyst eyes right at the rogue mage, her expression one of complete and utter contempt.

"I may still forgive you for all your sins, but after all I've seen, after all you did to those innocent people, after all you did to the ones I love, there is no way I can let you go unpunished!"

As Jeanne's declaration reached its conclusion, Prelati finally realized he picked a fight with the wrong Servant. He turned and ran, the illusion surrounding them fading as Prelati tried to make his escape.

Jeanne would have none of it.

"This is for Gilles, whose grief you turned into madness."

With both hands cocked sideways behind her back, Jeanne swung the inverted sword with all her might, the crossguard becoming a makeshift hammer aimed at the back of Prelati's head, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

"This is for La Hire, whose life you claimed to have taken."

Grabbing him by the collar, Jeanne then threw Prelati into the far wall, strong enough to leave a human-shaped crater.

"This is for all of your victims, whom you've toyed with from one era to another."

With one hand on the sheath and the other at its proper handle, Jeanne leapt into the air and thrusted the shrouded sword into Prelati's chest, giving him no time to recover.

"And this…"

With Prelati peeling off the wall and onto his knees, Jeanne towered over him, holding her sheathed sword properly as the rogue mage futilely tried to push himself back to his feet.

"This is for my Master, whom you've dared to lay your hands on."

Clasping both hands tightly around its grip, Jeanne brought the sword down upon Prelati's pathetic, broken body, striking the Servant down for the count.

* * *

 **[CONFLICT_RESOLVED]**

 **[HOSTILE_{Caster}_HAS_BEEN_DEFEATED]**

 **[INITIATING_DELETION_PROCESS]**

 **[_]**

 **[{Illusionism}_MAGECRAFT_RECORDED]**

 **[{Mental_Interference}_MAGECRAFT_RECORDED]**

 **[{Caster}_CLASS_DATA_RECORDED]**

 **[{summon(Caster)}_STANDING_BY]**

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, am I late on this! Yeah, sorry about that. I kinda had a horrible semester in college and had little time to work on this fic. But it's done now, so yeah. Though honestly, even though I like the final product (and I know you'll do), there were a lot of parts I wanted to include but that didn't make the cut. For example, for that final fight scene between Ruler and Caster I wanted to create an epic fight scene resembling a cross between the Deacons of the Deep from Dark Souls 3 and Stefano Valentini from The Evil Within 2, but instead I turned it into what can only be described as 'the ultimate comeuppance for one of history's largest bullies', which is just as satisfying to read, if not moreso, and far easier to write. Now I know there will be a lot of questions, but I'll be sure to answer them at the next chapter. Now that all has been said and done, please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Moon Cell Irregular**

 **By psychored1911**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA and Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei**

 **Chapter 7**

* * *

 **[DELETION_IN_PROGRESS]**

 **[0.00%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

Ruler wordlessly released her Master from within the Sovereign's Regalia as a prism of crimson code entombed the fallen Caster-class Servant. She had no need to fear for her Master's safety any longer. After all, there was nothing their adversary can do now to harm him in his sorry state.

Hakuno's eyes wandered towards Caster's corroding body, kneeling in close to get a better look "So, the Moon Cell will still delete the Servants once they're defeated, huh?"

"At least this way we know for sure Prelati won't bring any more harm." Ruler said as the two approached the unconscious students sprawled beneath their feet "How are your classmates? I didn't hurt them too badly, did I?"

Hakuno awkwardly shook his head and quickly assessed the broken students at his feet, using his phone's flashlight to illuminate the place. It seems like they were in the campus' basement "Well, I doubt you caused anything fatal, but they definitely need medical attention, and I don't think we should move them ourselves."

Ruler's heart dropped as her eyes wandered towards the badly beaten students below their feet "Perhaps I didn't hold back as much as I should've."

"Don't blame yourself. Getting the tar beaten out of them is better than keeping them under Caster's control. You did what you had to." Hakuno said reassuringly as his eyes wandered towards the tome Caster dropped during Ruler's beatdown "Hey wait a second, isn't that Caster's Noble Phantasm? Why isn't it getting deleted along with him."

Ruler shrugged as she picked it up, looking at its cover with disgust "Perhaps it's not his Noble Phantasm at all, but merely a Mystic Code he's been using to amplify his magecraft. Hopefully it can give us some insight to his whereabouts, and maybe the fate of his previous-"

"Get... _*gasp*_ your fucking… _*gasp*_ hands… _*gasp*_ off… _*gasp*_ my stuff… _*gasp*_ you… _*gasp*_ bitch…"

Just as she was about to open the tome, Caster suddenly sat up and put what little remained of his corroding torso against the firewall, gasping for breath as he spat futile curses at the Master and Servant duo. Clearly, this guy was determined be a douchebag till the very end.

Handing her Master the tome, Ruler approached the dying Servant and crouched down, her steely, amethyst eyes meeting with his pitch-black orbs "Oh, you're awake. Would you like to confess thine sins before you face judgment? As a Saint, I am more than capable of performing the Sacrament of Reconciliation."

The malicious magus tried to spit at her, only to hit the firewall instead "Go… to Hell…" he snarled "I promise you… you might've struck me down… but more will… still die… and it will be… all… your… fault…"

Contrary to his expectations, Ruler didn't get even remotely upset with Caster. Instead, she simply raised a brow in disappointment "Is that so? So you're admitting you had accomplices. That complicates things. No matter. My Master and I will see to it that your legacy upon this world shall eventually be all for naught. Goodbye, Francois Prelati. May the Lord have mercy on thy soul."

Ruler stood up and walked back to her Master with a smile on her face, conveniently ignoring Caster's look of disbelief.

"Are- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Caster screamed, his weakness and corrosion forgotten as he slammed what remained of his body against the firewall, only exacerbating the deletion process even further "I KILLED SCORES OF PEOPLE FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING THEM SUFFER! I TURNED OUR FRIEND INTO A MONSTER! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU OKAY WITH THAT?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BREAK DOWN INTO A SNIVELING WRECK AFTER ALL I'VE DONE! YOU BITCH! YOU FUCKING BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU AND ALL-"

He didn't even get the chance to finish his futile threat.

With his pride in tatters and his goals crumbling at the seams, Caster's deletion was finished, erasing every trace of him from the face of the Earth.

* * *

 **[DELETION_PROCESS_COMPLETED]**

 **[100.00%_COMPLETE]**

 **[MASTER_{Atrum_Gallliasta}_AND_SERVANT_{Caster}_HAVE_BEEN_DELETED]**

 **[_]**

 **[USED_COMMAND_SPELLS_DETECTED]**

 **[REFRESHING_SOVEREIGN'S_COMMAND_SPELLS]**

 **[_]**

 **[COMMAND_SPELL(S)_RESTORED]**

 **[COMMAND_SPELLS_REMAINING:_3]**

* * *

"..."

Hakuno stared at his Servant in stunned silence as she took the tome back from him without ever looking back.

Ruler raised a brow, shrugging as she skimmed the tome, flipping through the pages without a hint of anger in her soul "What? People like him revel in getting a rise out of others. Had I shown any sign of weakness, I would've given him exactly what he wanted. But I don't owe that monster any form of kindness, now do I?"

...Wow… "...You scare me sometimes, you know that?"

Ruler snorted at the remark before returning her attention to the tome "You should more be afraid of his other Noble Phantasm. We were fortunate his Master's incompetence disabled it, otherwise, things could have taken a turn for the worst."

Hakuno shuddered "Should I even ask after all I've seen?"

"I rather you help me find these accomplices of his, since this worthless waste of paper isn't going to be of any help." Ruler said, slamming the tome shut in frustration "This thing's little more than a Mystic Code made to amplify his magecraft. There are diagrams for torture and other cruel tricks, but there's nothing here that will tell us what he's been doing or who he's been working with."

Hakuno was inclined to agree, but a quick glance at the other students readdressed his priorities. "Finding the people Caster was working with is definitely our main concern, but we should also focus on getting these guys out of here." He borrowed a phone from one of the students and dialed emergency services, making sure to leave the call anonymous "Be ready to get us out once I'm done; we shouldn't linger here any longer than we have to."

* * *

They left in a hurry, making sure they were not caught by any security cameras. Shortly after they left, Ruler said she wished to head back to the church before they went home. She had two reasons for doing so: one, she wanted to establish an alibi, just in case his parents and the police suspected anything with his 'absence' from the school; two, she claimed she wanted the Sacrament of Reconciliation before they returned. She must've been more bothered by harming everyone there than she let on. Hakuno had no reason to deny her, so he obliged, using the time in the venerated halls as a momentary reprieve before they clean up whatever fuckup of a mess Caster must've made.

Fun fact: he didn't notice it the first time he was here, but it turns out the church was connected to Laeticia's high school, The Academy of St. Francis Xavier. Must be one of the reasons she chose this school in the first place.

Hakuno sat at the back row, away from any prying eyes, not that there were many to begin with; the only priest he saw was the one who saw Laeticia into the confessional. There, he began to examine his left hand, which bore the Sovereign's Regalia and his three Command Spells. He had no idea why he had all three of them, considering the fact he used one minutes after meeting Caster. He could only guess that the Sovereign's Regalia had something to do with it. Whatever the case, it'll certainly come in handy later on.

A few minutes passed, and eventually Laeticia and the priest emerged from the confessional, where the two bowed respectfully to each other once more before going their separate ways. Laeticia, no- Ruler, took a seat next to him and gave him a comforting smile, . The fire in her amethyst eyes were still there, but the guilt and unease building up within her had all but vanished. "I suppose you have more questions for me, Master. Where would you like to begin?"

"We can start with this." Hakuno showed her the lunar ring on his ring finger "You clearly knew what it is and how it works, didn't you?"

Ruler nodded gravely "The Sovereign's Regalia. As I've said before, it's a special Mystic Code only given to the Champion of the Holy Grail War. Whoever owns it has complete authority over the entire Moon Cell Automaton."

Hakuno doubted that the Moon Cell would simply forfeit its power to him just like that, but kept it to himself. Instead, he remembered the Code Casts Ruler taught him "This thing also allowed me to Code Cast on the physical plane, didn't it?"

Ruler gave him a puzzled look "What are you talking about? While you didn't have any Mystic Codes to facilitate your Code Casts, you still should have retained your ability to do so."

"...What?" Hakuno stared at her in disbelief.

"Perhaps I wasn't too clear with my initial explanation," Ruler mused, crossing her legs "The last time we talked about this, I only defined what Magic Circuits were and the role they played in both traditional Magecraft and Spiritron Hacking. Whilst traditional Magecraft requires prana, Spiritron Hacking requires spiritrons to function, which naturally occur either in the physical world or in SERAPH as pseudo-spiritrons. I have sensed spiritrons in the environment, so Codecasting is possible, but since you hadn't asked about it, I did not bring it up. I'm sorry for not clarifying it sooner."

"Don't worry about it. At least I won't be a deer in the headlights next time we see encounter another Servant." Hakuno told her reassuringly "Though, something tells me that extella() isn't the only Code Cast available on this thing."

"The Regalia is still an extension of the Moon Cell, so of course it will have more than a simple Anti-Army Code Cast in its arsenal." Ruler said, folding her arms "There are four Code Casts integrated directly into the Regalia that are unique to it alone: {extella()}, {moon_crux()}, {my_room()}, and {record_data()}. I already told you what {extella()} is, and {my_room()} would just send us into the eponymous Reality Marble, so let's talk about the other two. {record_data()} is a passive Code Cast that's being used now as we speak. It allows you to record any data you observed to be used at your own discretion. Whatever you observed, even in passing, can be recalled at an instant if need be. That includes any spells you've seen: psionic, spiritronic or pranic in nature…" her voice trailed off "...Including the magecrafts used by Caster…"

Hmm… a Code Cast like that is definitely fitting for the Moon Cell. Still, it sounds a bit too good to be true "I'm sensing a 'but' coming."

" _But_ , having that information doesn't mean you will automatically understand how to use it." Ruler gave him an annoyed look for the comment before continuing "Think of it like a search engine into everything you've ever seen: all the information is there for you to use, but to understand, to learn, you will still need to . The same goes for any magecraft or other abilities you may record: it's there for your use, but unless you learn how to use it, odds are you will only end up hurting yourself or worse."

Ah, that figures... "Noted. What about {moon_crux()}?"

"{moon_crux()} is a powerful Code Cast to be used during combat, but it's one of those 'Show, don't tell' kinds of Code Casts. Unfortunately, I wouldn't advise using it unless we were actually fighting someone." Ruler explained.

"Why not?"

"Collateral damage."

Hakuno then pictured the church they were in as a gigantic pile of rubble and broken glass. Yeesh, not a pretty thought at all "...Yeah, I can see why that could be a problem. Let's hold back on that one for now. What else can this thing do?"

"The Regalia grants you power over the Moon Cell, remember?" Ruler reminded him "If you so wanted to, you could receive all the answers you could possibly want. However, the same rules for {record_data()} still apply: the data's all there, but you still need to put the effort to understand it. Why don't you give it a try; we could certainly use a lead towards Caster's plans. Just close your eyes, and will the Moon Cell to your whims, and it will do the rest."

Hakuno closed his eyes and focused, allowing the connection between him and the Moon Cell to overtake his senses.

* * *

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_CONNECTING_TO_THE_CORE]**

* * *

The next thing Hakuno realized, he found himself face-to-face with the Moon Cell's Main Core, the Angelica Cage. The spiritronic sea that housed the Angelica Cage hadn't changed at all since he last saw it: the knee-high 'water', the stone columns that surround it, the monument of crumbling pillars, not a single thing has changed. Still, the foreboding air he felt when he confronted Twice and Saver was all but gone; he almost felt welcome in its presence. Perhaps this thing did accept him as its Champion. Whatever the case, countless holographic screens surrounded him, all of them blank and translucent. The Moon Cell was ready to answer to its Sovereign.

And who was he to keep this machine waiting?

"Alright Moon Cell, tell me what I want to know." hakuno declared "Show me what Caster had planned at my campus."

The Moon Cell did not give him a verbal response. Instead, the holographic screens came to life, with countless brief scenes and walls of text flashing before his eyes, orbiting around his body as more and more information began to flow from the screens. This wasn't gonna work. Time to focus.

"All right, show me the school right now." He ordered.

One hologram stopped before his eyes and expanded:

First High was a mess. There were an entire fleet of ambulances surrounding the campus, with paramedics hauling injured students out of there as quickly as they could while police officers and reporters were trying to get a statement from the few uninjured students and staff they could find. Hard to believe only around twenty minutes or so had passed since he called it in.

Hakuno wearily shook his head "If they only knew what happened…" As much as he wanted to empathize with them, he could let the professionals handle the injured. He needed to figure out what Caster was doing. "Alright, mark a timestamp on everything I observed during the Prelati incident."

* * *

 **::05:32 PM (LIVE): First responders and emergency services are securing First High School. Injured students are being evacuated.**

 **::5:19 PM: First responders arrive, investigate anonymous tip.**

 **::5:04 PM: Anonymous tip called in. Ruler and Lunar Sovereign leave First High School.**

 **::4:57 PM: Caster defeated by Ruler.**

 **::4:36 PM: Caster reengages Ruler.**

 **::3:09 PM: Ruler summoned by Command Spell. Caster retreats.**

 **::3:08 PM: Conflict initiated. Caster attacks Lunar Sovereign.**

 **::3:05 PM: Hostile Caster appears before Lunar Sovereign.**

* * *

There was a window of one roughly one hour and thirty minutes between Caster escaping and Ruler catching up with him. Weird, it felt much longer for some reason. Perhaps those illusions of his screwed with their perception of time? It didn't matter, there was a big enough window for Prelati to do _something_ while they were preoccupied, even if he was multitasking via screwing with Jeanne's head. Best time to check if any.

Starting at 4:36 PM, Hakuno slowly rewound the feed, looking for anything of note in or out of the campus for anything Caster might have done. The first (last?) thirty minutes were of Caster using that group of entranced students for that creepy cult-like sermon he was doing when he and Ruler walked in. It's disturbing as hell, but at best he was using them to humor himself with his human shields. The next (previous?) twenty minutes were just him corralling the entranced students into the basement in the first place. The last (first?) forty minutes, however...

One by one, a small group of vacant-eyed students, all Course One regardless of year, marched sluggishly through the courtyard into the back of a semi-truck, with Caster mockingly acting as a drum major of a marching band. There, some shady-looking man bound the helpless students to the container walls by their wrists and ankles, making sure they were nice and tight.

* * *

 **::Person of Interest Identified.**

 **::Hayato Shishio.**

 **::Age 47, Male.**

 **::Occupation: JSDF Sgt Major (deserted).**

 **::Wanted for desertion and grand theft of military resources. Prime suspect in 6 arsons and the murder of 29 individuals, including military and Magic Association personnel.**

* * *

A holographic profile appeared next to the scruffy-looking man, complete with a name and brief description of him. It was clear that he was working with Caster, but was it through Caster's magecraft or was it genuine cooperation? ...No, that look in his eyes… crazed, enraged, but clearly in control, just like Gilles'… he was working with him out of his own free will.

"Is this all of them, Mr. Galliasta?" the man asked once he secured the last student inside.

Caster, or rather 'Mr. Galliasta' (was that the name of his Master? Probably should check into him later), just grinned giddily "Why yes they are, Hayato! You know what to do with them!"

The scruffy-looking man seemed perturbed by 'Mr. Galliasta's' giddiness "Mr. Galliasta, is something the matter?"

'Mr. Galliasta' just grinned back, clearly happy at something unknown to his accomplice before hopping out the back "Tell Sayaka and Kamono not to wait up for me! The greatest of opportunities has just dropped into my lap! And who am I to pass on such an amazing chance to break one of the purest souls in existence~!"

* * *

Hakuno paused the feed, balling his fists in anger. That bastard really thought he could break Jeanne. He wanted to punch that smug face of his in, but he reined it in. He's gone now, but his legacy is still out there, and a whole lot of people are still in harm's way. Still… there was a lot of work to be done. First, he needed to find out who Sayaka and Kamono were. They may be the lynchpin to this whole thing, since conspiring with a deserter to kidnap students in a truck while leaving everyone else none the wiser was horrifying, but otherwise confusing and made little sense for motive.

"Who are Sayaka and Kamono?"

* * *

 **::Person of Interest Identified.**

 **::Sayaka Mibu.**

 **::Age 16, Female.**

 **::Occupation: student at First High School, vice captain of the kendo club.**

 **::Founding member of the First High volunteer alliance.**

 **::Absent from class today.**

* * *

 **::Person of Interest Identified.**

 **::Kamono Kinoe.**

 **::Age 17, Male.**

 **::Occupation: student at First High School, captain of of the kendo club.**

 **::Founding member of the First High volunteer alliance.**

 **::Absent from class today.**

* * *

"Sayaka Mibu?"

Hakuno was taken aback. He didn't recognize the second individual at all (his last name was ringing a bell, but he was currently drawing a blank), but the first one rang countless alarm bells in his head. Playing on a hunch, he took a moment to check on the students that Caster kidnapped. Sure enough, an entranced Kirihara was among them, alongside… Mitsui and Morisaki? What did they do to warrant their wrath? Unless…

"How many of these students received disciplinary action for harassing Course Two students?"

Again, no verbal answer from the Moon Cell, not even a simple yes or no. Instead, it showed a profile for every single last student in the container, each of them listing at least one infraction against a Course Two student in some form or another. The only student among them who didn't seem to have any record was… Mari Watanabe, the head of the Public Morals Committee? What did she do to earn their wrath?

While Mari's presence among these delinquents confounded him, the rest of the pieces began to fall into place. Sayaka and Kamono are part of the 'Volunteer Alliance', so they would have one hell of a beef with any Blooms, regardless of who they are. Prelati preyed upon them just as he did with Gilles, pushing them to the edge and adding fuel to their fiery rage. This plan of his was the final step: Caster was going to kidnap these students and bring them to Sayaka and Mibu, using Shishio (more than likely an accomplice for an earlier crime) as his personal delivery boy. After that, it would be like pigs to the slaughter…

Hakuno shook his head, his face stern and his soul resolute. It will not come to that. Not if he had anything to say about it. For a moment, Hakuno thought of simply sending the police an anonymous tip and ending it there, but decided against it. Caster was a psychopath, but he was a _careful_ psychopath. Had the latter not gone off track and tried to attack him for shits and giggles, he probably could've gotten away with it and nobody would've been none the wiser. Odds are, they would see the police a mile away and flee before they even get close. And even then, what was he gonna put in the anonymous tip? That a pyromaniac deserter and a pair of vindictive students are working with a serial killer from the 15th century to slaughter a bunch of delinquents? That would never hold up in court. If he was gonna do something, he had to do it himself. And while he was here, he might as well use the Moon Cell to his advantage.

"Where are they right now?"

* * *

 **::Yokohama Shipyard, Truck License S2U-T2M, Container #E101-212**

* * *

Hakuno sat down and let all the data download into into his mind, closing his eyes rather than taking the blackout head-on. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed an item folder directly to his left. The Moon Cell was giving him something? What could it be? He reached out to it, and the item folder dissolved into ones and zeroes before getting absorbed into the Regalia.

* * *

 **[CODE_CAST_{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}_RECORDED]**

* * *

 **::{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}**

 **::Medical Code Cast developed by Dr. Kiara Sessyoin, M.D.**

 **::Accesses target's secret garden, normally hidden deep within the inner part of one's soul, then exposes the impurities hidden by the secret garden in order to cleanse them.**

* * *

Another pop-up materialized before his eyes, describing the Code Cast that was absorbed into the Regalia.

"{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}..." Hakuno read aloud before glancing at the Angelica Cage "Now why would you give me this?"

Once again, no verbal response from the Moon Cell. Still, it's unlike the Moon Cell to do anything without a purpose, so it probably sees something that he doesn't. Or maybe it wanted him to use it on Caster's accomplices. Whatever its intentions, Hakuno knew he needed a plan, however brief it may be. He couldn't afford to waste any time, but neither could he afford to make any mistakes.

* * *

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_DISCONNECTING_FROM_THE_CORE]**

* * *

Hakuno left the core shortly afterwards, finding himself resting on Ruler's lap the moment he came to.

"Welcome back, Master." Ruler smiled "How was it? Did you find what you were looking for?"

Hakuno sat up, resisting the urge to return to her soft, soft lap pillow in order to face her eye to eye "Erm, sort of. Come on, let's go. I'll fill you in on the way over."

* * *

 **[PRIMARY_OBJECTIVE:_RESCUE_KIDNAPPED_STUDENTS]**

 **[SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE:_CAPTURE,_ELIMINATE,_OR_INCAPACITATE_HOSTILE_ACCOMPLICES]**

 **[_]**

 **[WARNING]**

 **[CONFLICT_IMMINENT]**

 **[ESTIMATED_TIMESPAN:_WITHIN_TWENTY_MINUTES]**

* * *

It started raining.

Countless drops of water began pouring over their heads as the skies began to darken. The sounds of crashing waves and the faint smell of sea salt permeated the air, with countless shipping containers as far as the eye can see. The shipyard was a maze; with minimal security (No CCTV and an apathetic skeleton crew) and rows and rows of identical containers, it would take a ship manifest, a map, and an experienced employee to get started

Good thing the Moon Cell makes for a good GPS.

With a good couple of minutes of running, they found the semi tucked away in a little, innocuous corner.

"...P-Please… you don't have to do-" A female voice (Mari?) desperately pleaded.

"BITCH, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" A second female (Mibu?) angrily roared.

 _*SMACK!*_

"How dare you try to claim the moral ground after everything you did!" Mibu(?) spat venomously.

"...B-But… I didn't do anything…" Mari(?) claimed between sobs.

"Exactly." Mibu(?) snarled, the resentment and rage dripping through her words " _You. Did. Nothing._ You had every chance in the world to stop them, but you. Did. _Nothing_. Well guess what, Bitch? Once we make your fellow Blooms suffer the same pain they gave us, we'll gladly do the same to you."

"...No… stop… stop, don't hurt t-"

 _*SHTLINK*_

"GYAAAAAAAH!"

* * *

 **[CONFLICT_INITIATED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANTS_REMAINING:_3]**

* * *

Of course, the barely audible conversation that came from the semi's direction was more than enough to confirm it as their target.

Outside the semi was the deserter, Shishio, pacing back and forth, enjoying an e-cig with a victorious smirk as his fellow accomplices tortured their victims with relentless abandon. From the looks of it, he was to keep watch while Mibu and Kinoe had their 'fun', and then to get rid of the evidence once they were finished.

Clever. Good thing they never factored in a Servant and Master hunting them down.

Hakuno and Ruler, now soaked from the sudden downpour, surreptitiously ducked behind a nearby container, their approach masked by the repetitious rhythm of raindrops.

Shishio glanced as his phone, twirling the e-cig in his left hand before muttering something imperceptible to their ears.

Ruler simply shook her head, leaning her back against the container with a disdained look on her face "You know, as much as I want to see Prelati's accomplices brought to justice, I'm not exactly fond of the means the Moon Cell has suggested."

Hakuno frowned as he crouched down and peeked at Shishio, who stopped smoking in order to check his phone "What choice do we have?" The Moon Cell's predictions made it very clear that prematurely involving the police would end with the accomplices in the wind and everyone in the truck dead. Granted, the alternative method the Moon Cell provided to him essentially involved _delving into their soul and rewriting it_ , but it was the best plan with their given timeframe.

In other words, fuck it: save lives first, deal with the ethical implications later.

Once he was sure Shishio was distracted, Hakuno activated the power of the Regalia and unleashed the Code Cast within.

* * *

 **[CASTING_{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}]**

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_ENTERING_SOUL_OF_(Hayato_Shishio)]**

 **[_]**

 **[SECRET_GARDEN_(Military_Experiment)_EXTRACTED]**

 **[PUNISHMENT_INITIATED]**

 **[CLEANSING_IMPURITIES]**

 **[_]**

 **[IMPURITIES_CLEANSED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANT_PACIFIED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANTS_REMAINING:_2]**

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_EXITING_TARGET'S_SOUL]**

* * *

Shishio dropped to his knees, clutching his head in horror as countless emotions he thought were abandoned suddenly reappeared and bombarded him all at once.

As for Hakuno, he fell on his butt, overcome with exhaustion . He couldn't have been 'gone' for more than a minute, but it felt like he was lurking within Shishio's soul for hours, cleansing the impurities within. He saw some _really_ fucked up memories in there. Jesus, this guy went through hell. Not that it excuses his actions, but still.

Ruler immediately yanked Hakuno out of Shishio's line of sight before he could be spotted, pulling him against the container and checking up on him "Master, are you alright?"

Hakuno gave himself a brief slap to the face, psyching himself up physically and mentally "I'll live. Nothing years of therapy and a good night's rest won't fix." he quipped half-jokingly, catching his breath before quickly peeking at Shishio, who began sobbing on his knees while dialing someone (possibly the police) on his phone.

 _*SLAM!*_

"What the hell are you doing?!"

The container door swung wide open, and out came Mibu and Kinoe, both of them wearing blood-drench aprons and holding large kitchen knives in their hands. Everything about them, from their posture to the wrathful look in their eyes, reflected nothing more than fiery hatred, ignited by their past, exacerbated by Prelati, and more than ready to burn down out of control.

Mibu swatted the phone out of Shishio's hands and raised her knife above her head in a icepick grip, only for Shishio to roll out of the way, drawing his CAD and pointing it at the two, frantically alternating his aim between the two whenever one of them so much as inched closer to in.

"Divide and conquer. One of the oldest strategies known to man." Ruler mused "Which one will you target next?"

Hakuno's tired eyes wandered towards Kinoe, who was not-so-subtly reaching for something, most likely his own CAD, tucked behind his pants "Guess he's up first." Hakuno said, aiming the Sovereign's Regalia at the bespectacled boy before letting the Code Cast do its magic.

* * *

 **[CASTING_{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}]**

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_ENTERING_SOUL_OF_(Kamono_Kinoe)]**

 **[_]**

 **[SECRET_GARDEN_(Brother's_Betrayal)_EXTRACTED]**

 **[PUNISHMENT_INITIATED]**

 **[CLEANSING_IMPURITIES]**

 **[_]**

 **[IMPURITIES_CLEANSED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANT_PACIFIED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANTS_REMAINING:_1]**

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_EXITING_TARGET'S_SOUL]**

* * *

Hakuno fell back again, sliding down the back of the container, feeling even more tired than before. Sweet, merciful Buddha-that worked-with-Twice-out-of-essentially-pity did that Code Cast take a lot out of him.

"Master," Ruler said worriedly, crouching down so her amethyst eyes were level with his "If you can't handle it, you can let me handle the last one."

Hakuno wearily shook his head as he peeked past the container, finding Mibu getting cornered by Shishio and a newly-turned Kinoe "No, you've done a lot already. I got this…" He channeled the spiritrons within his magic circuits through the Sovereign's Regalia one more time before aiming it at the deranged Mibu.

It was time to end this once and for all.

* * *

 **[CASTING_{thesis_of_the_still_heart()}]**

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_ENTERING_SOUL_OF_(Sayaka_Mibu)]**

* * *

No two souls are alike. It would be foolish to assume otherwise. Each soul is unique, and their soul room (As hakuno put it) reflected their souls perfectly. In Mibu's case, her soul resembled a war-torn dojo. The once sleek, wooden floor was ruined, marred by holes, loose splinters and rubber scuff marks. The walls, once decorated with awards and other sorts of kendo equipment, was now damaged, with the white paint peeling off and the furnishings scattered haphazardly to the wayside.

The only thing that seemed untouched amidst all the destruction was a sole kendo trophy standing at the center of the room, dated back to 2093. However, despite its spotless appearance, one could almost sense the taint that emanated from it. This was undoubtedly the Secret Garden that warped Mibu's soul.

Naturally, Hakuno picked it up, the Secret Garden dissolving into ashes before getting absorbed into the Sovereign's Regalia.

* * *

 **[SECRET_GARDEN_(Blooming_Hatred)_EXTRACTED]**

* * *

Just as the Secret Garden dissolved, an effigy of Mibu appeared before him, brandishing a kitchen knife and garbed in a bloody apron. The same thing happened with Kinoe and Shishio; their soul is trying to remove the foreign body (him) by any means necessary, apparently by using a projection of itself to combat him. Not that it ever _worked_ , since they were more-or-less docile until he pressed the right buttons. When they weren't, well, that's another story.

However, from his previous observations, this self-defense mechanism of sorts is another reflection of the soul, just like the dojo hall around them. Only, unlike the room, the effigy only reveals itself when the soul is laid bare, its corruptions exposed, and thus more malleable to change.

Making it a perfect indicator of what needs to be done.

"So, why did you do it?" Hakuno asked, pacing around the Mibu effigy inquisitively.

The Mibu effigy scoffed "Isn't it obvious? I hate the Blooms. They weren't going to change their ways, so I had to take matters into my own hands."

"You couldn't wait until justice ran its course?"

'Mibu' snorted "Justice? The Blooms won't get justice! Those monsters can get away with whatever they want, all because they're stronger than Weeds like me! The school even encourages this! When was the last time you heard anyone from the Public Morals Committee taking the side of us Weeds?"

"A couple weeks ago, when Tatsuya protected you from Kirihara and the rest of the kenjutsu club." Hakuno answered bluntly.

'Mibu' twitched in irritation "Don't you dare talk about those two bastards! That son of a bitch Kirihara tried to kill me! He should rot in Hell for all I care!"

"And Tatsuya?"

In contrast to her earlier outburst, 'Mibu' seemed more… disappointed at Tatsuya's mention "I thought Tatsuya of all people would understand the plight of us Weeds, that he would understand our goals, but even he was complicit with all this injustice! He didn't care about me- I mean, us, at all! He only cared about appeasing those Blooms with their hands on his leash, including that fucking sister of his!"

"So you're saying he should care more for you than he should his sister?" Hakuno argued, folding his arms.

"Tch, I knew you wouldn't understand either." 'Mibu' grimaced, turning away from him.

"Then make me understand." Hakuno countered opening his arms up wide "Tell me everything you have to say. Come on. This is what you really wanted, isn't it? For someone to hear you out?"

'Mibu' paused, clearly taken aback from Hakuno's statement.

"Start from the beginning, then." Hakuno pressed onwards "How about from before you enrolled in First High School."

For a while, there was only silence, with 'Mibu' refusing to meet his gaze. Then…

"...In middle school, I was the national kendo champion. I won every tournament, broke every record. However, besides my club activities, I moonlighted as a protector of the weak, sanctioned by my school's Public Morals Committee, and I hunted down any bullies I came across. That was the responsibility of the strong: to protect the weak, isn't it…" she chuckled darkly before continuing "But when I moved onto First High, everything changed. The Blooms, they relished in their superiority, and made sure us Weeds knew it. Bullying was rampant, the Weeds were being treated unfairly whether I was there or not! I tried to stop it, but…" she trembled vigorously, her anger overtaking her "The Public Morals Committee, they stonewalled me and my friends at every turn! They claim that they're preserving public order, but they really did nothing to solve the problem. Especially that bitch Mari!"

Hakuno could feel the hatred dripping through 'Mibu's' mouth at the mention of that name.

"She kept claiming that she was on our side, that she wanted to end the divide between the Blooms and the Weeds, but I know she didn't care about us when our back was turned! I saw her covering for her friends that one time, the way they chatted with each other made me sick to my stomach! The bitch didn't even deserve her position as vice captain back then, let alone _join_ the Public Morals Committee! Everyone knew she only got it because she was Captain Chiba's fucktoy!"

These were some very alarming accusations, and definitely something Hakuno would look into after this was over. But for now, he just continued "So, how did it lead to this? How did you get associated with Mr. Galliasta? That is how he introduced himself, wasn't it?"

'Mibu' almost laughed out loud "Mr. Galliasta, he was the best. I only met him back in February, but everything he said still rang true today…" she almost basked in reminiscence before continuing "Captain Kinoe introduced him to me that day, told me Mr. Galliasta managed to help him with his 'brother problems', as he put it."

Hakuno shuddered, remembering what the 'brother problems' were when he ventured into Kinoe's soul just minutes before.

"Mr. Galliasta told me to embrace my pain, my hatred, to let it consume me. He taught me so much, and he even came up with our final plan of revenge. Kinoe and I were to mark every damn Bloom that ever bullied Weeds so Mr. Galliasta could kidnap them today. Once the coast was clear, we were to bring out all the torment we endured onto them, make them suffer like we had suffered. Only then were we allowed to reveal to the world their treachery, and have them serve as a warning for those who bully others."

Hakuno could only stare at 'Mibu' with wide eyes, utterly speechless.

'Mibu' took his silence almost positively "Do you understand now? They had to die. They were never gonna stop, so we had to do it ourselves."

"...How disappointing."

* * *

 **[PUNISHMENT_INITIATED]**

 **[CLEANSING_IMPURITIES]**

* * *

The dojo was engulfed in a firewall, one that left everything but Hakuno surrounded by a red, translucent barrier of code.

To her credit, 'Mibu' did not seem too startled by the firewall, only leveling a glare at the raincoat-clad boy before her "What?! Disappointed!? What the fuck did you expect me to do? Forgive them? Those bastards would-"

"I'm not saying you should forgive them," Hakuno countered "Hell, I'd be surprised if you _didn't_ hold a grudge. Hatred makes a great motivator, after all."

"Then why?" 'Mibu' screamed, outraged "Why are you defending these damn Blooms?! I was doing this to protect the Weeds! I was serving justice!"

"The only person you were serving was yourself!" Hakuno scoffed, not buying any of her bullshit "Do you honestly think this will end the way you think it will? If I can find you, then it's only a matter of time before the police will. And _when_ they do, it will all go downhill from there."

"S-Shut up…" 'Mibu' snarled, twitching irritatingly as patches of deletion formed upon her body.

"You think the Weeds you've been 'protecting' will praise you as a hero? Do you think they'll even _like_ what you did? No! They'll be horrified by your efforts to 'protect' them."

"Shut up…" The corrosion grew, spreading to her arms and chest.

"The Blooms you _didn't_ kill will now be justified in hating the Weeds, leading to more bullying than there was before."

"Shut up!" The corrosion engulfed her face, becoming a mask that left her reddened, bloodshot eyes untouched.

"As for any civilians, they will see magicians as a whole as irredeemable monsters willing to kill to get what they want. All your 'noble' efforts will ultimately culminate in nothing more than the advancement of hate and nihilism."

"SHUT UP! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!"

'Mibu' snapped, slamming her wholly corroded body against the firewall in an enraged frenzy, to no avail. All the resentment and rage that permeated Mibu's soul, long before she even met Prelati, has made itself bare before him.

Making it all to easy to purify all at once.

"You're still blinding yourself to the truth!" Hakuno's magic circuits ignited to life, his spiritrons surrounding the Sovereign's Regalia while his left hand aimed upon the rampaging soul before him **"Open your mind!"**

* * *

 **[IMPURITIES_CLEANSED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANT_PACIFIED]**

 **[HOSTILE_COMBATANTS_REMAINING:_0]**

 **[CONFLICT_RESOLVED]**

 **[ALL_HOSTILE_COMBATANTS_PACIFIED]**

* * *

The firewall dissipated, and all the corrosion and ruin within her soul vanished along with it. The dojo, once in complete disrepair, was now immaculate and proud. Even 'Mibu', once covered in blood, sweat and rain, was just as pristine as the rest of her soul room.

"O-Oh God…"

Speaking of which, 'Mibu' collapsed on the ground, sobbing and uttering countless apologies at Hakuno's feet.

Hakuno sat down and crossed his legs, his brown eyes meeting Mibu's tearstained orbs. The hatred that had long permeated her soul has all but vanished.

After a few minutes, Mibu's crying began to decline, until it eventually stopped. Once her sobbing subsided, she began to speak "S-So… what am I supposed to do now?"

"Well, that depends," Hakuno told her, being absolutely sincere in helping her "You'll have to take responsibility for everything you've done, meaning you'll have to turn yourself in."

Mibu's heart fell "I see… So I guess I ruined my life in my quest for revenge."

"Well, you were an accomplice in kidnapping with intent to murder, and some of your victims were part of the Hundred Families, so yeah…" Hakuno said hesitantly "You will have a lot to answer for, but everything can be redeemed eventually. Just atone for your crimes, and sin no more."

"But what about the Blooms?" 'Mibu' asked "They're not gonna stop, are they?"

"I thought that President Saegusa would be able to handle it, but between this and the stupid 'volunteer alliance' made in response to them, she clearly doesn't know how to rein them in." Hakuno shook his head in disappointment "However, they're not all irredeemable. They just need a little... push in the right direction."

'Mibu' sniffled "I hope you're right."

* * *

 **[LUNAR_SOVEREIGN_IS_NOW_EXITING_TARGET'S_SOUL]**

* * *

The next thing Hakuno knew, he was back in the real world, feeling like crap, slumped against the container with a worried Ruler hovering over his head.

"Did… it work?" Hakuno asked weakly.

Ruler smiled and gave it a brief thumbs-up "See for yourself."

Hakuno feebly peeked behind the container corner, finding Prelati's three accomplices dropping their armaments onto the ground, with Mibu pulling her phone out and putting it against her ear, presumably calling the police.

Satisfied, Hakuno returned his attention to Ruler. "Our job's done. Let's get out of here."

* * *

"Ugh… what a day…" Hakuno groaned as he slumped onto his bed.

Hakuno and Laeticia returned home shortly afterwards. Naturally, Hakuno's parents pulled them to the side and grilled them for not contacting them; it was his parents' natural reaction when his school was involved in a bizarre incident and he was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, Laeticia covered for the both of them almost immediately, claiming that they were in church the whole time and they had to turn their phones off. He was fairly certain they didn't completely buy it, but Laeticia never gave them a reason to distrust her, so they let them go after a brief lecture.

Mibu and the other accomplices did not get off as easily. According to the newscast, the three were caught roughly ten minutes after he and Ruler left, having surrendered without a fight. Of the thirty six people they kidnapped, eight people were found killed and five more were found horribly tortured and mutilated. The rest will probably be traumatized for the rest of their lives. Hakuno was disappointed he couldn't have helped them sooner, but there were nothing he could have done. Anyways, the investigation is still underway, but there's already speculation that several of the Hundred Families (mainly the Morisaki and the Watanabe families) are pushing for Mibu and Kinoe to be tried as adults for what they did to their kids. Shishio, on the other hand, is being held by the military, in order to be court-marshalled for his previous crimes. Only time will tell how the 'official' story will turn out, since there was still some things that they can't possibly explain.

Sighing to himself, Hakuno changed out of his uniform, took off his gloves and stared at his left hand, the Sovereign's Regalia revealing itself once again. He knew for sure the school incident wasn't the only plan Prelati had, only the one that required immediate intervention. He must've had other plans drawn up, ready to continue regardless if he was alive or not-

"You know, you'll drive yourself mad if you continue worrying over every little detail."

Hakuno sat up, finding Laeticia at the doorway, dressed in a turquoise t-shirt and black gym shorts.

"May I come in?" Laeticia asked, smiling calmingly.

"Sure." Hakuno nodded as she sat down next to him "So, was I really that easy to read?"

Ruler nodded, gently taking his left hand in her right "Of course you were, not that I'd blame you. In fact, I think using the Regalia to right Prelati's wrongs is quite noble of you." She paused, her amethyst eyes steeling with the passing seconds, before continuing "However, while the Regalia is rightfully yours to use as you wish, I still suggest you consider using it wisely. Just because it grants you the powers of the Moon Cell, it doesn't mean you _should_ rely on it for everything. Understand?"

Hakuno understood her completely viewpoint completely "Alright. I understand."

He gave her a brief hug, and she returned it, gently embracing him before standing up to leave "Good night, Master. We have a lot of work ahead of us." Ruler said softly before retiring to her room for the night.

Now that she mentioned it, Hakuno almost forgot how tired he was. All those Code Casts took quite a lot out of him. Stretching into a lawn, he fell back onto his bed, allowing himself the sweet comfort of sleep.

* * *

 **[{summon(Caster)}_AVAILABLE]**

 **[SUMMON_CASTER_SERVANT?]**

 **[_]**

 **[INITIALIZING_SAINT_GRAPH_RESTORATION]**

 **[UPDATING_BACKUP_DATA]**

 **[0.00%_COMPLETE]**

* * *

 **A/N: And done! Wow, is this chapter late! I am sorry about the delay, but I had a lot of work to do last semester, and those three back-to-back events in F/GO last month didn't help either. I'll try to update as soon as I can next time. Speaking of which, there was a lot of things I had to cut out and/or alter to fit in this chapter, but I'm still satisfied by the final product. Truth be told, I prefer it if authors try creating different interpretations of characters. It's one of those little things that makes fics much more interesting instead of virtually reading the same fic over and over again. Take 'Shishio' for example. He actually appeared as an unnamed antagonist in the first chapter of Mahouka Koukou no Yuutosei, but I felt his arc was sort of contrived to give Miyuki a reason to show off her superior magical abilities and never mentioned again, so I gave him a greater involvement in the backstory (if only implied, of course). Better, don't you think?**

 **Anyways, until next time, please review!**


End file.
